


Trust

by MegaKat



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball
Genre: Angst, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Mating, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Romantic Fluff, Slow Burn, fighting the inevitable
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2016-08-10
Packaged: 2018-03-02 00:26:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 134,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2793122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MegaKat/pseuds/MegaKat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On her way to a peace talk with King Vegeta, Princess Serenity is shot down by Prince Trunks and they both crash land on a deserted-but habitable-planet that's inhabited by nearly sentient predators. Can they learn to trust each other so that they can survive until rescue arrives? Rated T, slow burn, R&R!</p><p>Shironek0 did a GORGEOUS cover for this story and you can find it here! http://shironek0.deviantart.com/art/Usagi-and-Trunks-546201748</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Usagi had never been a very strong swimmer, so by the time she pulled herself up onto dry land she was exhausted, panting for breath, her muscles screaming from exhaustion and her burns doing much the same. “Thank you,” she choked out tearfully as she grabbed handfuls of sand and tugged herself further up the beach for several minutes, hand-over-hand, every inch of her shaking from the strain of it. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

                She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer at that and told herself that she would just take herself a little, well-deserved rest, her lids slipping shut as her final ‘thank you’ whooshed out of her in an exhausted sigh.

                The feeling of water soaking through her pants and into her shoes woke her, and Usagi groaned and held her head when she opened her eyes to only darkness. Funny, hadn’t it been bright and sunny out when she’d crashed? “Oh no, I dozed off,” she realized wearily, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep. “No, gotta stay awake,” she mumbled. “High tide.”

                Her legs shook like a newborn colt’s as she pulled herself up onto her feet, and she swayed in place for a moment, her head swimming from the sudden movement. “So lucky I even woke… I think I have a concussion,” she realized, confirming it when she looked down at the hand that had held her head and she spotted some blood on it. The princess of Earth’s moon swallowed down the urge to vomit at the sight of the dark red stain, reminding herself that she’d had worse than that during the war with Beryl, focusing on getting to higher ground. “You can puke when you find shelter,” she promised herself.

                There were some trees in the distance of the alien planet and Usagi remembered something about trees and fresh water, so she decided to head in that direction. Sure, she had a copious supply of food and water and plenty of other useful things in her subspace, but she had enough common sense to know that she might need to save those for an emergency. It would be better to find a steady supply of water than to use up what she had on hand.

                And speaking of water… “Gods, I’m parched,” she realized suddenly, only to stop herself from reaching in her subspace right away. “No,” she decided, “I’ll reward myself with a drink when I reach those trees. Gods know I’m going to pass out again if I sit back down.”

                _Rei would be proud of me,_ she thought with a delirious chuckle  as she shuffled along, forcing her feet to move despite the overwhelming desire to just lie down in the tall grass and take another nap. _I’m not whining or crying for once… but that’s probably because I have a head injury!_

That thought struck her as absurdly hilarious, and Usagi suddenly laughed out loud, holding her head as it pounded in reaction to the sound and the shaking that came along with it, but try as she might, she couldn’t stop laughing like an idiot at the thought of Rei telling her that she’d finally had some sense knocked into her head. “Oh, I’m gonna have to tell her that one when I see her!” She finally giggled, steadying herself against a large, convenient rock in the middle of the beach grass.

                The princess managed to pull herself together after a minute, and she finally got moving in earnest, keeping her eyes locked on the treeline, using it as her focal point and sole motivation as she forced one foot in front of the other.

                A walk that would have normally taken her five to ten minutes nearly took her half an hour, and when she finally reached the woods she felt tears welling up in her eyes as she slumped down against it and kissed its trunk. “Now for that victory drink,” she rasped tearfully, wondering vaguely how she even had enough moisture in her body to produce tears.

                She withdrew a bottle of water from her subspace then, grateful that she was still strong enough to even access it, tears rolling freely down her cheeks as she willed herself not to chug the entire bottle right then and there. She needed to conserve everything she had just in case rescue didn’t come right away, and besides, she’d likely only vomit up the water in a few minutes due to her head wound.

                “That’s enough,” she whispered after drinking several ounces, capping the bottle and setting it aside. “Now… I know I shouldn’t sleep, but screw it. I already did and it didn’t kill me.” She drew a pillow and blanket out of her subspace then and settled onto the ground, so exhausted that she passed out the moment she was semi-comfortable.

                It was dawn when she opened her eyes again, and Usagi was grateful that she hadn’t slept in the sun—as pale as her skin was, she’d likely have one hell of a sunburn if she’d laid out in it for too long. “Need to find food and water,” she told herself as she fished around in her subspace for some mild painkillers for her head and took them with a swallow of water from her bottle.

                Food came next, but she merely nibbled on a sandwich piled high with meat and vegetables, stowing it away for later once she’d eaten half, wary of the fact that she could likely throw it up as soon as she stood. “Alrighty, Usa, time to get moving,” she told herself, carefully rising to her feet and leaning against the tree for support. “At least my head isn’t swimming like it was last night… thank Selene for Lunarian healing.”

                Usagi finally looked around then and took in the scenery in the early dawn light, truly looking for the first time since she crashed, and she counted her lucky stars that she’d crashed on a habitable planet somewhere in Vegeta-sei’s solar system. Most likely Vegeta-sei Five, judging by the distance of the suns rising and the amount of foliage and lack of any signs of intelligent life.

                The Saiyans had only just finished terraforming that planet a decade ago if she remembered right, just when the war had started between their peoples, so it wasn’t like they’d had any time to bother colonizing an outlying planet while their warriors were busy fighting.

                Her eyes turned to the right then and took in the distance she’d walked from the salty ocean she’d crashed in, but there was nothing useful that way except for maybe some fishing if she could figure out how to catch any. Straight ahead was tall grass and some more woods in the distance; even further out were some mountains.

                To her left was trees and grass and—“Holy crap,” she breathed, her eyes wide in terror when they locked with another pair of blue eyes a few shades lighter than hers and she stumbled back against another tree. “Stay right where you are! I’m warning you!”

                A mirthless chuckle was the only reply that she heard, and the eyes of the male Saiyan warrior staring up at her only continued to do so suspiciously as she got ahold of herself and studied him.

                “Oh. You can’t move,” she realized, taking in the horrible angle his leg was bent at and the lightly smoking lump in the distance. How had she not noticed that crashed ship!? Sure, it wasn’t on fire or anything, but still… “You’re Prince Trunks,” she suddenly whispered as she caught a glimpse of lavender hair in the grass and she leaned forward a bit to see the symbol of the royal house on his battered and broken armor. “You’re—oh my gods, you’re the asshole that shot me down!” She shrieked, suddenly furious as she recalled the same insignia on the ship that had shot her right out of her flight path towards Vegeta-sei One. “What the hell is wrong with you, you flipping idiot!? I was coming here on a damned peace mission and you— STOP LAUGHING!”

                “It’s funny ‘cause… the explosion… shot _me_ down,” he answered, his voice dry and gravelly.

                “And it’s even funnier because my communicator is underwater,” she countered. “And because I can walk away. Asshole,” Usagi finished, seething with rage as she turned her back on him and went into the woods, stomping her way through the underbrush as her anger fueled her with purpose to get as far away as possible from the man that was second in line to the throne of Vegeta-sei.

                Rei would have been amazed at how long it took before her bleeding heart caught up with her; Usagi had traversed a mile through the woods and had even found a stream with clean, drinkable water before it dawned on her that she’d quite literally just left the Saiyan prince to die.

                He couldn’t walk, his hair was red with blood from a likely head wound, and he was clearly too weak to use his ki since he hadn’t blasted her into oblivion. And she’d just left him there as if he was no better than the mud on her boots. “He shot me down,” she muttered, “he deserves it. I came here on a peace mission and he just shot me without any warning at all. Let him save himself.”

                That kept her right where she was for several minutes while she stripped naked and scrubbed head to toe with some soap from her subspace, but the moment she went to stow it away and drew out some clean clothes, she realized that the prince didn’t even have a subspace pocket like she did. And he couldn’t move, so… “Oh, fine… I guess the least I can do is offer him some food and water and fix his leg once my powers aren’t busy trying to heal _me_ ,” she sighed guiltily.

                She was grumbling to herself about being too nice for her own good when she finally came back out of the trees, having followed her own path of broken foliage, and she wasn’t surprise to find the Saiyan prince right where she’d left him, his eyes barely cracked open and his chest rising and falling shallowly. “Here,” she said simply, holding out a bottle of water to him.

                “Finishing the job?” He rasped, eyeing the bottle but not reaching out to take it.

                “Exposure would do a fine job of that,” she countered coldly. “I’m trying to be _nice_. Oh wait, that’s right! You Saiyans have no concept of the word! You just shoot down princesses who have sent out declarations of peace and are flying under a flag of parley! Here’s some food, too,” she added for good measure, tossing a paper sack down where he could easily reach it, along with the water bottle. “Now hold still and I’ll check your leg and—“

                A growl stopped her cold, and she was surprised at how loud and strong the sound was—considering how weak he was, she would have expected him to barely be capable of a whimper. “Don’t touch me,” he hissed out.

                “Seriously? _You_ shot _me_ down, and _you’re_ telling _me_ not to touch you? I think you’ve got the roles reversed here, buddy. It should be me leaving you for dead, you ungrateful bastard!”

                “Oh, you’re a real piece of work to be calling _me_ a bastard,” he huffed, “at least I know my father.”

                “My father was a hero!” She yelled down at him, “and your father is nothing more than a warmongering asshole, just like _you_! Your grandfather’s the only one of you that has a godsdamned bit of sense, and if he were here right now, he’d probably slap you around not only for insulting me, but for refusing my generosity!”

                “Your father raped your mother and then she killed him months later when he tried to kill you,” Trunks corrected her nastily. “And while my father’s a real bag of dicks, at least I’m _honest_ about it. I don’t try to dress him up as something he’s not!” When she didn’t reply and only looked down at him with tear-filled eyes, he couldn’t help but feel a wave of guilt run through him at the sight of her expression.

                She hadn’t known about her father, but judging by her face, an awful lot of things suddenly made sense to her and she wasn’t denying his words. “ _Now_ I’m an asshole,” he finally muttered, heaving a weak sigh as he felt around for the water bottle, opened it, and took a careful, wary sip by way of an apology. “There. If it was poisoned, now I at least rightfully deserve to die. Want some? We’re going to be here for a while unless you’re precognitive and sent out a mayday before I fried your communications systems. Maybe we should just both commit suicide and get it over with.” Trunks let out a delirious chuckle at that, his eyes glittering with humor even though she was openly crying quietly. “I can see it now… they find our bodies right next to each other, dead from poison, and they all assume right away that we were secret star-crossed lovers that snuck off to die in each other’s arms in protest of the horrors of war. I’m sure Father will just _love_ that. Until they find my ship and yours, anyway, and figure out the reality of it all. But still… heh… oh gods, his face!”

                “My mother would have an icy fit over it,” Usagi replied half-heartedly, knowing that she’d find the joke hilarious at any other time, but too caught up in memories of her mother crying whenever someone mentioned her father. “Prince Trunks… my father. You know this to be a fact? For sure?”

                “During a time of peace, my grandfather offered your mother asylum on Vegeta-sei while she was pregnant with you. And my grandfather doesn’t tell lies… he doesn’t have to. And… I’m sorry, for what it’s worth. That was a shitty thing to say… even for me.”

                “Yes, it was,” Usagi agreed as she stepped over to the tree she’d slept under and she sat down on the grass she’d broken by lying on it. “Drink. Then I’ll check out your leg and see what I can do for it.”

                “You’re not touching me, princess. Go right ahead and wipe the thought from your mind. I’ll drink and eat and accept your hospitality in exchange for being a pompous shit about your father, but it doesn’t mean we’re friends. You’re the enemy, simple as that,” he told her flatly as he shakily opened the paper sack, his trembling hands giving away his weakness.

                “An enemy that was coming to offer peace and an end to the war,” she sputtered. “Gods, you’re thick. Are you always—phhht… that’s what you get for being stubborn,” she said automatically when he dumped a ton of water on his face while trying to aim for his mouth. “I would have helped you eat and drink if you’d been nice.”

                “Not only do non-mates not feed each other, but I’ll be damned if I’ll owe _ch’cr’dit_ to you. Thank you for the food and water, now go away and leave me here to die with honor.”

                “I don’t want your stupid blood debt,” Usagi assured him hotly. “I don’t want anything from you unless you can figure out a way to get me off of this damned planet! I want to go home!”

                Impressed by how big the sandwich was that she’d given him, the prince bit into it, only to wince as he chewed slowly, his head pounding with every movement of his jaw, and he slowly wrapped it back up and set it to the side, exhausted just from the unbearable pain and effort that came with eating. Gods, it felt like the back of his head had been split wide open! “Thanks,” he rasped out, his vision going foggy for a moment before the princess’s face came back into focus. He suddenly felt so weak, so tired, and some sort of sixth sense told him that this was the end. He was dying. “Heh… at least I’ll die looking at someone beautiful…”

                Usagi didn’t miss his sudden weakness or the resigned look in his eyes, nor did she miss how he’d gone suddenly limp, his eyes half-shut and unseeing, the sound of the last breath that he’d drawn coming out of him like a weary hiss. He didn’t draw another, either, and despite the fact that he was her enemy and he’d put her in this predicament, she was filled with panic at the thought of being left alone and she immediately dove on him, her healer’s instincts taking over.

                ##########################################

                “You’re very lucky. And very stupid,” an annoyed, low voice told her before she even opened her eyes. Usagi didn’t bother to open them, either, as she noted the heaviness in her limbs and the roaring hunger in her stomach. Coupled with the feeling of being far too hot, she knew without a doubt that she’d just healed someone extensively—only bringing someone back from the edge of death ever drained her _this_ much.

                “Hey, uh-uh! No way, don’t you dare pass out!” That same voice barked down at her angrily just before she felt cold water being dumped on her head and she sputtered and coughed in reaction. “Oh gods damn it,” he muttered when she choked out a sob and curled up and shivered. “Fucking hell… now I’m an asshole all over again. Come here, damn it.”

                Usagi couldn’t help but go limp when she felt warm, strong arms surrounding her and cradling her to an equally warm, bare chest, and she leaned into that warmth, still shivering from the cold and the fever. But then she was surrounded in heat and power and she sighed, relaxing into the solid, muscular body holding her protectively. “Thank you,” she whispered against his skin. “M’cold…”

                “Why did you heal me?” he asked immediately. “What in the world would possess you to heal me, a warrior that earnestly tried to kill you?”

                “Dead,” she sighed into the warmth. “You were dead.”

                “But why?” He pressed, his tone softening as he felt his ki and confirmed silently that he had in fact died. Hell, he was twice as strong as he’d been before.

                “Dunno,” she replied tiredly as her belly rumbled loudly again.

                “Here. Eat. Something tells me that you replenish your strength the same way that Saiyans do,” Trunks sighed, unwrapping the sandwich that he’d only taken a single bite of right before he’d expired. She didn’t take it, though, she only remained curled against him, breathing deeply, obviously toeing the line between consciousness and sleep. “Oh gods damn it, of all the motherfucking… _eat_ ,” he grunted, pressing the sandwich to her lips, steeling himself to genuinely yell at her when she didn’t take the offering right away, his beast prickling at what it understood to be a refusal.

                Usagi stirred after a minute, though, parting her lips slightly to bite down on some of the exposed meat at the edge, chewing slowly and finally swallowing after what seemed like an eternity. “Thank you,” she whispered, taking another slow, tentative bite when he only grunted a second time and pressed the sandwich to her mouth.

                The sun was high in the sky by the time Usagi finally consumed all of the sandwich, steadily eating more with every bite, chewing and swallowing a little bit faster once half of it was gone. Her strength was returning to her as she ate, and when he offered her the water bottle, she chugged half of it and then accessed her subspace for juice, giving him a grateful, tired smile when he automatically helped her sit up against him. “Thank you,” she repeated for the hundredth time since he’d started feeding her, pulling the rest of her sandwich from when she’d first landed out of her subspace, then a second one for him. “Here. You eat, too. Then we figure out what to do before the sun sets?”

                “Well, you certainly bounced back from that quickly,” the Saiyan prince remarked as he accepted the food and unwrapped it. “Huh… how many of these do you have, exactly?”

                “One for every time I ever snuck into the kitchen for snacks over the last ten years,” she informed him nonchalantly. “Cook makes a bangin’ sandwich, doesn’t she? Just the right amount of mayonnaise. Hm… I have a lot of cookies, too, come to think of it. Lots and lots of food and stuff, but not as much water as I’d like. I found a stream about a mile into the woods, though, so that should solve the water problem.”

                Damn, she sure talked a lot. “Sandwich is good, save the cookies for later, we’ll take inventory once we’ve decided what to do about sleeping, and the stream definitely takes a load off my mind. Good job.”

                “No problem,” Usagi said with her mouth full, only to startle him as she rose up on her knees and began to poke around the back of his head.

                “What are you doing!? Don’t touch me!”

                Clearly insulted, Usagi just looked at him sternly. “Seriously? Your stupid brain was practically falling out of your stupid skull and you tell the healer that _saved your life_ not to touch you? Stop being an asshole, Trunks. I’m making sure that I fully repaired your delicate little head before I passed out. Hn… maybe your attitude is a symptom of remaining brain damage,” she added coldly, tears welling up in her eyes when he only continued to glare at her and she promptly moved away from him to finish her sandwich alone.

                She finished eating before he did, and having had her feelings trampled enough to put her near tears, she simply got up and trekked into the woods, heading towards the stream to refill her empty water bottle, sipping at her juice along the way. “What an asshole,” she whispered to herself. “You save his life and then he just keeps treating you like the bad guy. He even shot me down and I saved his life and he’s still acting like an ass. What is wrong with him?”

                “Care to say that to my face?” Trunks’s voice growled from behind her.

                Rather than react in embarrassment at being overheard, the furious moon princess spun in place and stepped forward, glaring right at him without a hint of fear. “Sure! Why not!? You shot me down! I saved your life! And you’re still acting like the biggest asshole to ever walk the universe! I’ll ask again, what in the hell is wrong with you!? Were you dropped on your head as a child!? Is it genetic!? Or do you just alienate everyone you meet, even when that person is likely the only company you’ll have for an indefinite amount of time!?”

                “You said it yourself, you don’t want any blood payment, so don’t expect me to be your bestie just because you saved my life. I nursed you back to consciousness, princess. We’re even. I’m Saiyan, you’re Lunarian, so that makes us enemies; the best I can offer you is a temporary truce until rescue arrives. Until then, I won’t kill you, but I’m sure as shit not going to be your friend, either. Just a temporary ally, nothing more.”

                “Gods… Mako was right… you Saiyans are just… _heartless_ ,” Usa choked out, tears escaping her eyes to stream down her face. “I saved you because I was afraid to be alone,” she admitted with a sob, “a little bit because it was the right thing to do, but… b—but mostly because I h—hate to be alone. Now I see it was for n—nothing!”

                Trunks was too busy reacting to the tug in his chest at the sustained eye contact to say or do anything, and when he could finally shut his mouth again, she was already gone. “The fuck just happened?” He breathed. “Did… did I seriously just…”

                _Yup_ , his beast quipped with a cheery tone.

                “Oh… oh _fuck me_ ,” the prince huffed, sitting down hard on a fallen tree to collect his thoughts as he noted the direction of her footsteps so he could follow her later. After all, she had all the food and a ton of useful supplies in her subspace, and while he expected that they’d be picked up within a week and he could easily provide for himself until then, common sense told him that he needed to be prepared for an extended vacation on Five.

                While he contemplated his fate and the fact that he’d just felt the pull for the daughter of Vegeta-sei’s Enemy Number One, he noted that it was early autumn, and judging by the deciduous trees and the lack of pines or tropical foliage, they’d managed to land themselves in a temperate climate. Winter would be harsh depending on how far north they’d landed, but Trunks knew he wouldn’t be able to figure that out until he’d explored some more.

                He’d been to Four and Five before on hunting trips and training exercises with his father and the Elite, so he knew from experience how bad the winters could be and how quickly it could start snowing. Judging by the state of the leaves on the trees, they had a few weeks before it snowed—maybe two months—but without knowing weather forecasts and what the summer was like, he had no clue what could be headed their way.

                “I’d better find her before she gets herself into trouble,” Trunks decided, ignoring his beast when it suggested that he get himself into her for a few hours by way of an apology for his behavior. “Not a chance, _kio m’yo_ , so just stow it. I’m _not_ mating with the princess of Earth’s moon.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Aw, shit. We landed way further north than I thought,” Trunks grumbled when he finally found the princess. He’d tracked her by scent, and while he hadn’t spotted her right away, he’d definitely spotted the adolescent _wer’kha_ sitting patiently on the ground. And the direction it was looking in and pure common sense told the prince that Usagi was in the branches of a tree.

                Sure enough, long strands of golden hair were dangling from a couple dozen feet up, and the branch she was perched on was bowing just slightly. “Did it get you at all before it treed you?” He asked, ignoring the massive animal when it swiveled its head to look at him, its growl just barely audible.

                “No, I’m ok!” Usa shouted, her voice sounding like she’d been crying since she’d left him behind. “Not like _you_ care!”

                “I was just curious since a _wer’kha_ never stops chasing its prey once it gets a taste of its blood. That’s all.”

                “Aw, crap, are you _serious_!?” She squealed, the branch shuddering as she stood and poked her head out of the reddening leaves. “That stupid thing swiped me with its claws, but I moved before it could really dig them in! What do I do!?”

                With a sigh and a mental acknowledgement of temporary surrender to his beast, Trunks sized the beast up before licking his lips and preparing for battle. It was only half-grown, and Trunks had taken down far bigger _wer’kha_ than this one, so if he played it safe he could kill it in three moves before it managed to sink its claws or teeth into him. “You need to just stay put and accept my peace offering,” he called in reply, “and if it manages to get its tail barb into me, I need you to heal me within five minutes.”

                “Um… I take it the tail barb’s bad?” Usa asked with wide, bleary eyes as she looked down at the _wer’kha_ ’s tail, which was whipping from side to side so quickly that it was just a blur to her. 

                “Yup, pretty damned bad,” he confirmed as he powered up with his ki to augment his speed. He blurred from sight the moment the creature was fully focused on him and rising up onto its feet to confront him, and when the prince came back into view, he was on its back, his arms bulging where they were locked around its thick neck. “Stay there!” Trunks yelled when he sensed Usagi moving above him, his tail whipping out to catch the _wer’kha_ ’s as it moved to strike him in the spine. “I’ve killed bigger than this, princess, just sit tight until I tell you it’s safe!”

                “You’re the boss!” Usagi agreed without argument, honestly impressed by how strong he was, his tail included. That long brown appendage was easily keeping the barb at a safe distance while Trunks applied more pressure around the beast’s neck with a level of calm that surprised her, and she watched wide-eyed when the animal suddenly went limp and dropped to the ground with Trunks still riding its back. “Good job!” She cheered, thankful for the rescue despite his earlier douchebaggery.

                “Stay put!” Trunks barked up at her. “It’s not dead yet, it’s just faking!”

                “Oh?” She asked in surprise, stilling on the branch. “But… it’s not breathing.”

                “The _wer’kha_ is a smart animal; it’s not sentient, but it’s damned near close. Think of it as an extremely intelligent ape or dolphin from your planet, only it’s a predator that could wipe the floor with one of your tigers or lions on its worst day. The older ones are even known to set traps for hunters,” Trunks explained evenly.

                “No offense, Trunks, but why in the gods’ names didn’t you just blow it up?” Usagi asked dryly.

                “It might sound stupid to a Lunarian, but it’s a matter of honor,” Trunks answered, inhaling and exhaling slowly and deeply as his arms began to burn a bit from the strain and he felt the sudden sting of the _wer’kha_ ’s barbed whiskers on his wrists. “Oh, you little asshole,” he growled. At least they weren’t poisoned, they just stung like a bitch and mildly shocked him; if the animal had been grown, the electric shock would have been enough to really hurt. “It’s also a matter of not wanting to waste one of the warmest furs in the universe,” he added as he switched his grip around its neck without releasing pressure, then jerked his full body around as hard as he could.

                A loud crack sounded at that and Trunks sagged in relief; that had taken a lot longer than he’d expected since he hadn’t gotten the right hold on the animal in the first place. “It’s safe,” he huffed, flopping down into the thick, luxurious fur of the dead beast and wiping the sweat from his brow. “Holy shit, that actually wore me out.”   

                The fun wasn’t over yet, though, and Trunks leapt to his feet at the sound of leaves crunching only a dozen feet away, putting himself between Usagi and the noise, growling loudly in warning at what could only be an approaching _wer’kha_ that was related to the kid he’d just beaten fairly. And this other animal knew it, too, otherwise it wouldn’t have bothered making any noise as it had come closer—no, if it had deemed the match unfair, it would have just pounced without warning and it would have taken vengeance. 

                “Usagi, I need you to listen to me very carefully and do everything I say as I say it. You understand me? Because if you don’t, we’re both going to die,” he told her quietly as a head poked out of the trees and a pair of luminescent violet eyes locked with his.

                “H—holy…” Usagi stared in shock at the creature looking at them; the animal that Trunks had just killed had been about the size of a grizzly bear, but this thing… holy shit, this thing was easily ten feet tall!

                “It’s a female. Good,” Trunks informed her as he growled afresh up at the massive beast. “Usagi, get behind me, right behind me, pressing up against my back. Do it now, don’t hesi—good, very good. You can look at it around me if you want, that’s fine, but whatever you do, don’t step out from behind me. This is a matriarch we’re dealing with, and we need her to think that you’re my mate. It’s obvious that you’re not family because of your coloring and your scent, so she needs to think we’re pairbonded or at least seriously courting, or she’s going to rip us to shreds for killing one of her cubs.”

                “Oh, ok… apparently we’re forgiven if you were protecting family?” She asked aloud as she peeked around his shoulder to see the matriarch studying them intently and lightly sniffing the air around the pair.   

                “To the _wer’kha_ , that’s all that’s worthy of protecting,” he explained softly as he wound his tail tightly around her waist and grasped a delicate hand resting on his hip. “Relax into me. You trust me without question, I’ve been courting you for months, and you’re not afraid of her because I’m standing between you and her.”

                “Is she going to attack?” Usagi asked softly.

                “Not if you do as you’re told. If she’s satisfied with what she sees and smells, she’ll walk away. And then you and I are getting as far away from this damned rutting ground as quickly as possible. Great job on that, by the way,” he chuckled, “you walked right into a mating hot spot during mating season.”

                “Oh… I did!?” Usagi asked in surprise, looking around for evidence.

                “Yeah, see all those bare spots where the bark’s been scratched off the trees?”

                Sure enough, there were patches high up off the ground, all of them with angry-looking claw marks in the hardwood, some of the bare spots as big as half the size of the matriarch’s head. “What are those from?”

                “From the females’ claws—they stand up on their hindquarters and let the males mount them from behind, and dig their claws into the wood and hang on,” Trunks answered calmly, still staring fearlessly up at the massive female. She moved then, and without hesitation the prince snarled possessively, stepping forward in challenge and releasing Usagi’s hand to spread his arms wide. “ _Sh k’sha m’yo_!” He shouted up at the _wer’kha_.

                “What are you saying?” Usagi whispered when the female went still.

                “I told her that you’re my mate. Some of the older ones understand the basics of the Saiyan language, and if I was a betting man, I’d bet that she’s one of them. They don’t get that big unless they’re a few hundred years old,” Trunks explained.

                “Stupid question, Trunks, but if the females are obviously the bigger ones and they’re in charge, why aren’t you standing behind me?” She asked with a giggle, unable to help trolling him a little.

                “Because she knows that males are the dominant party in the Saiyan race,” he replied dryly.

                “Well, women are the rulers in Solarian society,” Usagi countered hotly, incensed by his flippant tone. “And between you and me, we definitely do a better job of running things than a bunch of warmongering hotheads! Martians not included!”

                At the sound of arguing, the female growled and stepped forward again, and before Usagi realized what she was doing, she’d stepped in front of Trunks to glare up at the giant predator, visibly glowing with power in her anger. “He’s mine if you haven’t noticed, so back off!” She shouted up at the matriarch, baring her teeth at her for good measure and managing the most pitiful growl she’d ever managed. The princess stuck to her guns, though, and when the _wer’kha_ hissed at her and flared the stingers on its face, Usagi quickly remembered what Trunks had done and threw her arms wide in a ‘come and get some’ gesture, fighting down a laugh when she felt a tail wrap around her waist from behind and a chin rest on the top of her head.

                “Might as well take my chances with a united front, even if it confuses the hell out of her,” Trunks mumbled into her hair.

                “I’ll take confusion over fury any day,” Usagi agreed. “What’s the word for ‘man’ in Saiyan, Trunks?”

                “ _Ta_ , why?”

                “Just trust me, I think I’ve got this. _Ta k’sha m’yo_!” Usagi shouted up at the beast. “ _M’yo! …F’ri…_ ”

                “ _T’au_ ,” Trunks whispered in her ear.

                “ _F’ri t’au_!” Usagi finished, baring her teeth again for good measure and stomping forward two steps, half-dragging Trunks along with her. “Now go away and leave us alone!”

                To both of their unfailing astonishments, the matriarch actually took two steps back in response to Usagi’s advance, snorting loudly down at her in what honest-to-gods sounded like amusement.

                “I’ll get the carcass,” Trunks told her, “no, don’t look at me—you’re the one that wanted to play the dominant role, so own it, princess. You know where I am, worry about where she is. That’s it, back away from her, but don’t take your eyes off her. Follow the sound of my voice and… good. It’s ok to turn and walk away now,” he said quietly when the _wer’kha_ suddenly dipped her head in acknowledgement and slipped silently back into the trees.

                Usagi nodded in return, knowing instinctively that the predator was still watching, and stuck to Trunks’s side like glue even when he hauled the dead adolescent up onto his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. “Wait, you’re taking her pup, isn’t that going to make her mad?”

                “It’d be a huge insult to leave it to rot; in fact, we need to make doubly sure that nothing’s wasted,” he explained. “Now let’s get out of the woods as fast as possible. Judging by her size, her clan is massive.”

                Usagi chose to be silent until they were clear of the trees, and when Trunks breathed a sigh of relief, she did too, and followed him when he went to the center of the field and set down the fresh kill. “You got a sharp knife in there that I can use?” He asked as he surveyed the carcass with a keen eye.

                “Yeah, sure… here you go,” she said, offering one up as she scanned the field and her gaze lit upon his crashed ship. “While you do that, I’m going to go salvage for anything useful. It looks like the fire’s out.”

                “Sure, sounds like a good plan,” he answered distractedly as he began working at the hide, careful not to bloody the wonderful, thick fur that was going to keep them very warm as soon as he cured it with his ki.

                _Keep both of you warm, huh? Well, you did just stake a claim on her._

“Shut your cake hole, Kio,” Trunks muttered under his breath. “You know damned well why I did it.”

                _Heh… you said ‘yours,’ too, remember? And you let her stake a claim over you! What a good little woman you’ll make!_

“Oh, shove it up your ass!” Trunks exclaimed, only to flinch, turn, and wave Usagi away when he found her staring at him from a distance. “Ignore me!” He shouted for good measure before growling at his beast. “Now listen up, because I’m not going to say this again—I am not mating her. Understand me? So keep all of your little hare-brained ideas and opinions to yourself.”

                _Phhht… I’ll eat our tail if it’s the last time you actually have to tell me that you won’t mate her_ , Kio challenged smugly. _And I plan on making it my life’s mission to make you batshit until you **do** mate her. _

“Too late, I’m already there. Hell, I’m sitting in a field talking to myself while my enemy digs for supplies to help us both survive until help comes.”

                Two hours later Usagi returned, beaming proudly as she started to empty her subspace and unload all sorts of odds and ends from the downed Saiyan cruiser. “I hope we can use some of this! Especially the capsules!”

                The word ‘capsules’ got Trunks’s attention and he immediately turned from the meat he was cutting to check out her offering, only to grimace at the scorch marks on all of them. “Might still be something useful in them,” he hoped aloud. “Let me finish up here and wash my hands, and then we’ll check those out. I need to finish up here before sunset.”

                “Anything I can do to help?” Usagi asked curiously as she took in the sheer amount of meat that had come from just the one kill. Surely, it was more than they could eat in a couple months, even with their combined appetites.

                “Actually, yes. Your subspace—you said you’ve got food stored in there from ten years ago, right?” Her little nod confirmed his suspicions and he pointed to the haunches of meat he’d already cut and set aside on top of the remnants of his armor. “So all of this will keep in there?”

                “Yup. See, I am good for something,” she giggled at an attempt to make him smile.

                She wasn’t disappointed; he actually cracked a tiny one for her benefit and handed over a large hunk of meat. “Hey, I never once said you were useless, princess. In fact… when we’re done putting all of this away, would you care to start a fire?”

                Trunks was surprised when she nodded without hesitation, and he continued to work in the warm sun, grateful that the days were at least still balmy even though winter was approaching. And judging by the presence of a large clan of _wer’kha_ , winter would be upon them sooner than later; _wer’kha_ only nested north of the forty-five parallel and their presence didn’t bode well for them if help didn’t arrive soon. In fact… “Princess, you and I need to have a discussion about the possibility of rescue not coming anytime soon,” Trunks sighed as he handed her the last bit of useable meat and surveyed the remains. “First, you got a really big bucket in there? Something the size of a clothes hamper?”

                It was handed over immediately, and Trunks nodded his thanks as he began loading the offal and unusable bits into it, carting it to the treeline and dumping it a good ways from the path they would take to the creek. This way it wouldn’t be wasted; something would come along and eat the remains, and the matriarch wouldn’t be angry with them. “Alright,” he stated upon his return, holding out his hands when she offered some water to wash them, scrubbing them vigorously as she slowly upended the bottle to create a steady stream. “Thanks. Now, I’m going to cure this pelt so we can use it tonight. You might not have noticed because you were exhausted, but last night got pretty cold. We’re going to need pillows and blankets, even a tent if you’ve got one.”

                “Hrm… no tent,” Usagi said mournfully as she fished around in her subspace. “I’ve got lots of pillows and blankets, though.”

                “That’ll do. We’ll focus on building shelter tomorrow and just pray that it doesn’t rain or anything overnight. Now, let’s move everything to the other side of my ship, towards the trees over there,” he said, pointing to his intended destination. “The scent of blood and meat will attract predators, so we need to camp far away from it. We’ll come back tomorrow and figure out what to do with the bones once they’ve been picked clean.”

                Moving camp was easy thanks to Usagi’s subspace, and neither of them could believe their luck when they got past the ship by a half-mile and saw that there was a lake only a little further out. “Don’t get your hopes up, though, it could be salty since it’s so close to the ocean,” Trunks warned her when she pumped her fist in the air in triumph.

                It wasn’t, though, and Usagi beamed as she sipped from it and found it to be good and clean. “Well, I think we’ve found a good spot to sleep until help arrives,” she said sunnily when Trunks wash his hands, took a drink from another spot, and seemed pleased with the find.

                “Hell no, I’m not sleeping on the ground more than one night, princess. We’re building something in the trees tomorrow. _Wer’kha_ are poor climbers,” he explained when she just scratched at her head in confusion. “If it was just me, I’d be sleeping in a tree tonight, but something tells me you’d have a hard time sleeping on a branch.”

                Oh, yeah, he had a tail, so of course he’d be ok with sleeping in a tree. “Sorry we have to sleep on the ground because of me,” Usagi sighed.

                “It’s alright, I think we’ll be safe. If that matriarch had wanted us dead for food or vengeance, she would have already done it, and since we’re so close to her clan, I doubt any other predators will dare try and attack us. That’d be poaching, and the _wer’kha_ hate it when other predators poach in their territory. Now… those capsules. Hand them here and we’ll see what we’ve got to work with.”

                The prince was amazed to find the remains of a capsule house in one of them and blinked when it popped into view for a whole second before collapsing in on itself because of the damage that the capsule had sustained in the fire. “Shit. That could have really been a big help.”

                “Yeah,” Usa sighed in disappointment, “but on the bright side, there’s a ton of stuff we can work with in there. One of those floors or walls could easily be used to make a platform of sorts in the trees, right?”

                “Only if you’ve got a saw in your—oh,” he chuckled, “well, then that changes things.”

                Usagi grinned as she put the saw away and shrugged. “I’ve got a ton of tools in there, actually, I borrowed Ami’s spare toolkit once and kept forgetting to return it. Nothing fancy, but I’ve got the basics. Hm… I think I might have something to use for an overhang, too,” she added thoughtfully, eyeing a particular gap between two trees whose branches touched. “Nah, it wouldn’t work if it rained, it’d just get soaked through. Wish I had a tarp or something in there.”

                Unbeknownst to her, Trunks was checking out the same spot and he nodded. “Actually… if you’ve got any candles, I might be able to waterproof a big piece of cloth. It’d take a lot of work, but it would be worth the effort in favor of staying dry.”

                “They’re all scented, but I figure wax is wax, right?”

                “Heh, I guess we’ll stay dry and smell good at the same time,” he mused aloud, “at least until we can figure out how to piece a roof together. I can probably just make some nails out of the metal from the wreck—hey, wait a second. Did you find a sword in there?”

                She’d brought an awful lot of stuff back from the ship, so much that Trunks hadn’t actually gone through it due to his distraction over the capsules, and he suddenly felt naked as he thought of his sword—his mark as the first of the Elite—and how it was almost always strapped to his back.

                “Actually, yeah,” Usagi said automatically, retrieving it from her subspace, taken aback by a genuine smile on his face. Wow… he was really good-looking when he smiled! “Here. It’s important?”

                “Yeah,” he sighed in relief as he took it from her. The scabbard was damaged a little, as were the wrappings on the hilt, but they’d been made of fire-resistant material, so they weren’t too bad off. And the blade was still perfect and as sharp as ever upon inspection. “Thank you for this, Usagi… it means a lot. See here?” He offered, feeling a little awkward about showing his enemy one of his only prized possessions. “This is my grandfather’s name etched in right here… that’s my father’s… and that right there is mine. My _ja’ja’ta_ presented it to me on my last birthday when he named me the new commander of the Elite. I’m the youngest commander ever at nineteen.”

                “Oh, neat,” Usagi said appreciatively as she studied the make of the blade, noting that the fire hadn’t touched it. Hell, it had barely even damaged the blade’s trappings. “My mother gave me half of the ginzuishou’s power when I turned eighteen,” she offered. “Wanna see?” She asked brightly.

                Well, he’d just showed off a little, right? Why not. “Sure.”

                “Oh, awesome, I haven’t done this in a while,” she said happily as she held her hands in front of her chest and a glow immediately responded to her call, bathing her in a bright white light. Her princess gown followed just as quickly, and once Usagi was standing there in all of her ethereal glory, she smiled proudly.

                “Huh, sort of like transforming to a Saiyan’s legendary form,” Trunks observed. “Pretty, but can you fight like that? Or is it just for looks?”

                “Care to get blasted all the way back to the ship?” She asked with a little cocky grin. “Because I’d be more than happy to demonstrate.”

                “The Saiyan in me says yes, but the common sense in me says no,” he answered lightly. “We can spar once we don’t have so much work ahead of us. Don’t worry, I’ll be happy to kick your ass in the near future.”

                “Go ahead and sound smug about it,” she snickered as she let the transformation fall. “Come on, let’s find some wood and we can get that fire started. I’m getting hungry again and a fresh steak sounds delicious.”

                “Sure,” Trunks agreed, following her to the woodline. “We’re going to need to inventory your subspace, too,” he reminded her.

                “That would take _weeks_ ,” Usagi sputtered. “I’m kind of a packrat, to be honest. You see, a subspace pocket kind of just gives you what you need when you think about it, if the item’s stored inside. I’ve been spoiled by the simplicity of it, so there’s probably a million things just chucked inside. Stuff that I probably haven’t even thought of in years… hell, stuff that I probably won’t even remember putting in there,” she explained.

                “All the more reason to empty it out. There could be something in there that we can use to call for help. I fried your communications, mine burned up in the crash, so we need something to signal where we are. Sure, they’ll probably have a general idea as to which system we’re in since I reported about an hour before I shot you down and because your mother knew your flight path, but the fact of the matter is that Five is a huge planet. Worse still, the gravitational field here and on Four and Six will block them from sensing my ki unless they’re pretty close. They’ll have to come within a few miles of us in order to pick up my energy signature.”

                Usagi stopped walking at that, the enormity of it hitting her full force, and she sat down hard on the leaves carpeting the floor of the edge of the woods, tears filling her eyes. “So… so they’re searching for needles in a haystack,” she whispered. “Shit… Trunks, what are our odds of being rescued if they can’t sense us?”

                “Good,” he replied, feeling a pang of guilt for making her cry as he knelt in front of her. “Look… I’m going to make you a deal, ok? Don’t cry… and I’ll be your friend. At least while we’re here. We may as well be on good terms since we’re going to need to rely on each other for an unspecified amount of time.”

                “If you’re my friend, you won’t lie to me,” Usa answered softly. “So tell me the odds, Trunks. How likely is it that they’ll find us?”

                “I… look, princess… they’ll land on this planet for sure. That’s a hundred percent likelihood. But how close they land… I don’t know. A stronger warrior would sense me within maybe sixty miles. My father or my grandfather, a couple hundred. A weaker warrior… ten. Maybe twenty. There are so many factors to consider that I can’t give you a good estimate, but I will tell you that any warrior worth his salt _will_ circle the planet in multiple places, giving us a better shot at being found. So… I don’t know… I give us maybe a seventy-five percent chance of being found within a few weeks.”

                “Hopefully before winter sets in,” Usagi sighed, looking up at the changing leaves on the trees, wiping at her tears before dropping her eyes to his. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to cry, Trunks.”

                “It’s alright, I know it’s a lot to take in in only a day. But at least we’re not alone, right? Truth be told, I think I’d go batshit if I was stuck here alone,” he admitted. “Now come on, it’ll get dark soon, and we need a fire if we want a hot meal for tonight.

                Usagi didn’t know if he was doing it on purpose, but his constant usage of the word ‘we’ and ‘us’ made her feel a little better, made her feel like he genuinely regarded them as a team and her as an equal. Well, she _had_ made several important contributions so far, hadn’t she? “Yeah, sure. And Trunks… thank you. I’m happy that we’re friends, even if it’s only for a little while.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Damn, that was a great meal,” Trunks sighed as he leaned back against one of the logs he’d drug up to the fire pit he’d made by burning all the grass to ash in a large circle so that they wouldn’t risk starting a wildfire.

                He honestly had nothing to complain about despite their predicament; all of his needs were met at the moment. He was clean and even all of the blood had been washed from his hair thanks to Usagi’s help with it and her huge stock of different shampoos and soaps, and she’d even found a pair of sweatpants for him that were way too big for her, so they both had clean clothes while the ones they’d washed in the lake were drying on a rock.

                The fur was ready for use, too, and Usagi had produced pillows and blankets for them to lie on so they could use the warm pelt as a cover against the chilly night air. Not only that, but she’d surprised the hell out of him by starting the fire herself with a method he’d never even heard before, let alone seen.

                “Where did you learn how to do that thing with the battery, by the way?” Trunks asked conversationally. “No offense, but I never thought that a princess would be able to jury-rig something like that.”

                “I learned it from Rei, actually. She taught us all how to start fires in case we ever needed to know,” Usa answered, warming at the praise. “She taught me the potato chip thing, too.”

                “I’ll admit, I’ve never seen that, either. If I ever find myself without my ki and I need a fire, I’ll definitely remember chips for kindling and a battery and a gum wrapper to get it started,” he chuckled. “Now, let’s bed down for the night before we’re too groggy to get up,” he suggested, huffing as he climbed to his feet and started laying out the blankets she’d set aside, throwing the pillows down in a pile at the head and draping the fur on top with the soft side down.

                He’d kicked his boots off and had climbed in within moments, his purr starting up at the feeling of the unbelievably soft fur against his skin, and he waved the moon princess over with a grin. “I swear I’d strip naked just to roll around in this thing if you weren’t here,” he laughed. “Come on, get in, it’s the softest thing you’ve ever felt on your skin, I swear it.”

                “Only if you keep your clothes on,” she snorted, knowing that he was joking as she kicked off her own shoes and slid in under the fur where he was lifting it up in invitation. “Oh… oh, wow… Trunks, this is so nice! I don’t think I’ve ever felt fur like this before! It’s like a warm cloud!”

                “A lot of lower class warriors have died trying to get one for themselves,” he informed her as he actually listened to his beast and pulled her against him tightly. “The matriarch’s in those trees over there and she’s watching us. Besides, the body heat will make it easier to sleep,” he added in response to her bright blush and her wide eyes. “Oh, don’t worry. I don’t have any interest in fucking you or anything like that, princess. I’d just rather not get mauled in my sleep by the biggest female _wer’kha_ I’ve ever seen.”

                _You are so full of shit,_ his beast taunted him.

                _The_ wer’kha _**is** watching us, _ Trunks countered smoothly

                _You know that’s not what I meant, boy._

 _And I don’t care. Drop it._ “Comfortable, Usagi?” He asked aloud once she’d settled in, curled up against his side, her arm around his waist and her head resting on his shoulder, his own arm slung around her and his purr rolling through her soothingly.

                “Mmhmm… I thought that the purr might keep me awake, but… hm… lulling me to sleep,” she admitted groggily. “Will the _wer’kha_ attack us?”

                “I doubt it, but if they do, it’s nothing I can’t handle,” he sighed, entranced by the scent of her hair in his nose. Gods, she smelled so good; if she was Saiyan he would already be trying to court her and would just lose himself in that scent forever. But no, she was Solarian, and that fact was beginning to frustrate him as she relaxed into him in total trust, her warm breath ghosting over his bare chest, the feeling of her hand on his back and her soft curves pressing against him making him feel soft and contented. “Night, princess.”

                “Night, Trunks.”

################################################

                Thankfully he was half Saiyan, because if he hadn’t been, Trunks would have never woken again and neither would Usagi. But luckily for the both of them, his beast woke him silently and alerted him to danger, to a change in the way the air moved and a scent that was difficult to distinguish from the fur draped over them.

                So he shifted slightly to get his nose out of the blanket and Usagi’s hair, keeping his breaths deep and even while alarm bells sounded in his head as he drew in the scent of at least eight _wer’kha_ closing in on them in a tight circle. _What a bunch of fucking cowards,_ he thought to himself as he discreetly poked Usagi in the back with the hand resting on her spine.

                She didn’t wake, though, and Trunks rolled his eyes as he silently bided his time, waiting for the beasts to close in just a little further before he struck. He could move right then, but if he did, he ran the risk of not killing them all quickly, which would put Usagi at risk in turn. And as much as he hated to admit it, he didn’t want to see her get hurt, pull or no pull. After all, he needed her just as much as she needed him to survive comfortably until help arrived.

                Trunks reached out with his ki once the _wer’kha_ had drawn closer, surrounding them in an invisible ki field, and when he suddenly erupted into golden ki flames and struck out, he moved with a speed that none of the animals had ever encountered before, snapping necks with little effort and aiming tiny ki balls for the survivors’ hearts, dropping them all before they could even think to retreat and slam into the barrier.

                “Is that the best you’ve got!?” He shouted towards the tree line in Saiyan. “Come on, surely you can do better against one warrior and his mate, especially while they’re sleeping!”

                “Trunks? Trunks, what’s going on—AH! OH GODS WHAT HAPPENED!?” Usagi shrieked, pushing at the heavy body lying across her legs, pinning her in place in the dark. The fire was long out and Trunks’s ki was the only light source available, so the princess found herself fighting down genuine panic as she struggled against the massive weight that was draped over her… until she felt it with her hands and realized how unbelievably soft the fur was. “OH GODS IT’S ANOTHER ONE AND IT’S BIGGER THAN THE LAST!”

                “Shhhh!” Trunks hissed down at her loudly. “It’s alright, they’re all dead, now stop that yelling, you don’t want the others to hear you panicking or they’ll label you as easy prey!” He heard her choke out a sob in reply, and when he smelled tears, he immediately went to her to check on her, only to sigh when he found that she was pinned. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Usagi. But don’t freak out like that, ok?”

                “Y—you could have at least woken me up!” She cried as she furiously wiped at her tears.

                “I tried!” he half-shouted in frustration. “I poked the hell out of you and you didn’t move an inch, so I waited until they were all at just the right distance to kill them quickly!”

                “You know… I _did_ sleep through a hurricane on Jupiter once,” she mumbled thoughtfully, “so I wouldn’t put it past me to sleep through an attack until a giant cat-dog-bear thing lands on me. Sorry,” she whispered. “And wait… wait a second, you used ‘them,’ not ‘it…’ just how many attacked us?”

                “I killed eight, and—aw, shit. I smell another one approaching. Hang on a second, the bastard might just be sizing me up,” he sighed. “Hold still,” he told her as he shoved at the dead male pinning her down, rolling it off of their bed along with any others lying on the fur. “There, all better? Anything broke? Good. Just stay put and stay behind me, ok? I can smell this asshole’s musk and he’s big and old. He’s probably that matriarch’s mate, too.”

                Sure enough, the giant cat-dog-bear thing that approached and growled loudly was nearly as big as the female, and the bull sniffed the air and surveyed the damage that Trunks had done before letting out an ear-splitting roar that made Usagi squeal in terror and cover her ears, only for her to lift her head in surprise and crack a tiny smile when Trunks replied in kind. _If I wasn’t fearing for our lives, I’d actually find that sound cute,_ she thought absently.

                It was a powerful noise coming out of a humanoid, but compared to the _wer’kha_ , Trunks sounded like a pissed off kitten, even as he launched into a loud tirade in Saiyan at the giant animal, his fists clenched and his golden ki flaring in anger. “I hate to ask… but what did you say?” Usagi inquired when he fell silent and the bull just stared the prince down.

                “I called him and his kin cowards,” he spat out, not breaking eye contact with the _wer’kha_ while he answered. “They attacked us in the dead of night, while we were sleeping, without announcing themselves first to present a challenge. The bull’s pissed that I didn’t fight fair; I told him that the rules don’t apply to my own territory. If they want to come to us, then they fight on my terms, just like I would respect their methods if I was in the forest. And if they can’t keep up with me at full strength, then that’s their problem and they should stay the fuck out of our turf. If they want a fair fight against me, then they can grow a pair of balls and challenge me properly.”

                “Oh. Is _that_ all,” she asked, her eyebrows raised in surprise that the wer’kha hadn’t tried to flatten him like a pancake. “So… what do we do now? Why is it staring at you like AH! What the HELL!?” She shouted as she dove out of the makeshift bed and jumped between Trunks and the beast, which had just struck Trunks in the face with its paw with a speed that she hadn’t been able to follow. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”

                “I’m ok,” Trunks grunted as he picked himself up. “His claws weren’t out. He was just issuing a challenge, that’s all.”

                Usagi just stared at him for a long moment, her jaw hanging open, but when she saw the bruise blooming on his cheek, she snapped her mouth shut and turned on the _wer’kha_ again, fury burning in her eyes. “I’ll ask again! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!? HE’S MINE, IF YOU HAVEN’T FIGURED THAT OUT BY NOW! NOW GO THE HELL HOME TO YOUR MATE BEFORE TRUNKS WIPES THE FLOOR WITH YOU TOO, JUST LIKE HE DID YOUR LITTLE BRATS!” She screamed at the bull, pointing towards the woods for good measure before turning towards Trunks to heal his face.

                Only Trunks was gone, and there was a resounding crunch to her right where the _wer’kha_ was standing, its paw—claws extended—caught between both of Trunks’s hands and being crushed. “Did… did he just…”

                Noting the breathy whimper to Usagi’s voice, the prince silently willed her not to pass out, giving her a stern look as he nodded towards the bed. “Yes. He did. But I stopped him in time and you’re fine. Sit down, stay put, and stop screaming at animals fourteen times your size.”

                “No… no, this ends tonight,” Usagi whispered, surprising herself with the steadiness in her voice and her step as she came forward and reached out, touching the bull’s crushed paw, her blue eyes shining with a mixture of fear and hope as she glowed with the light of the ginzuishou. “I can’t bring back the others, but I can fix your paw. You’re an asshole, but consider this a peace offering,” she told it gently, motioning to Trunks to release it as its bones crunched back into place.

                The _wer’kha_ just stared at her, its violet eyes wide and its mouth open stupidly in shock, and when Usagi finished and released him, he only continued to gape. “Go home,” she repeated softly, smiling gratefully at Trunks when he translated aloud for the animal’s benefit. “Please just go home and leave us in peace. We don’t want any more trouble.”

                “Holy shit,” Trunks whispered in awe when the bull slowly backed away, stared at them for a long moment, then turned and retreated towards the woods. “Did… did that shit just happen, or did he hit me harder than I thought he did?”

                “I—it happened,” she stammered, turning to him to cup his face and heal the huge, ugly bruise taking up half of his head.

                “Oh… oh wow. Holy… Usa, does that crystal always…?” He felt so relaxed, so at peace, and even as she withdrew her hands, the feeling lingered and he wanted nothing more than to take her to bed, hold her, and purr his head off for the rest of the night.

                “Y—yeah… Trunks… Trunks, I d—don’t feel so—“

                The prince didn’t catch up with her until she was a couple dozen feet away and retching in the dark, her supper staining the tall grass and her petite frame shaking from the strain of vomiting and the fear that she’d kept banked during the encounter with the _wer’kha_ bull. “Fuck… shit, Usagi… Usa, it’s ok,” he whispered, hesitating only a moment before awkwardly rubbing her back as she sobbed and wiped at her mouth with a hand towel she’d pulled out of nowhere.

                Pulled tightly against him, Usagi could only cry, trembling from her lingering fear. But she was comforted after several minutes by his purr and the way he was holding her protectively, his fingers running gently through her hair, his lips pressing to her forehead. “H—He could have killed you…”

                No surprise, she was more horrified about the _wer’kha_ striking him with its claws in than she was about it lashing out at her with the intent to kill. But then again, he didn’t think much could surprise him after he’d seen her heal the beast when Trunks had been about to take it out. “Hey, look at me,” he urged her softly, his beast coming out of him and taking over at the scent of her fear and the sound of her crying. “Usa, sweetheart, look at me… see? I’m ok. I’m just fine, and you did a good job.”

                “I—I did?”

                “Yeah, you did,” he sighed patiently before scooping her up in his arms and taking her back towards the bed. “And I need you to do one more thing, ok? I need you to touch all of them and wink them into your subspace so that they don’t go bad. Can you do that much for me? Good girl. Then we can lay back down and pretend like it was all a bad dream.”

                “Promise?”

                She sounded so scared and vulnerable that Trunks completely forgot in that moment who she was and who he was, his heart clenching in his chest as he nodded and hugged her tightly. “I swear it on my tail. Come on, just a touch, right? You can put them away like that, can’t you?”

                A little nod confirmed it, and Trunks carried her to every still-warm body until they were all gone, then promptly took her to the bed and held her as she continued to cry, his hold on her protective and comforting, his purr eventually soothing her until she dozed off.

##########################################

                “Trunks… Trunks! Wake up! _Please_ wake up, **_please_**!”

                The prince opened his eyes to find the Lunarian leaning over him, her hair like a golden curtain blocking out everything but the sight of her face, beautiful even though her eyes were full of fear. “Mmm… what’s wrong?” He asked sleepily, having not gotten much shut eye after he’d stayed awake for hours while she’d slept, waiting up just in case the bull returned.

                It hadn’t though; he’d only heard some roaring far in the distance for several minutes, then a few yelps from several of the sentient animals, and then nothing. He’d eventually dozed off once he’d been sure that they were safe, leaving his beast to keep watch with his nose and ears for the scent or sound of anything approaching them. “What is it, Usa? What’s wrong?” He repeated as she looked to her right.

                His eyes followed the same path, and Trunks gasped in shock and quickly scrambled to his feet, looking every which way for the creature that had left them an offering just outside of the territory he’d marked with his piss the night before.

                “Trunks, is… is that the bull from last night?” Usa asked shakily as she slid behind him, instinctively trusting him to protect her from any danger that might come from that direction.

                “Yeah… yeah, it is. And I can guess without even looking at the wounds that the matriarch killed him last night. Explains all the sounds I heard after you dozed off.” He was an Elite Saiyan warrior, a prince—but his hands trembled as he cautiously approached the carcass, waving Usagi back towards the bed and safety as he wondered if the body was booby-trapped somehow.

                But it wasn’t trapped, it was a fairly fresh kill, still a tad warm, and it hadn’t even attracted that many flies at the nasty, gaping hole that had once been its neck. “Gods… oh gods… she ripped his throat out,” he realized, backing away hastily and bumping into Usagi on the way. “U—Usa, move, I’m gonna be sick,” he admitted with little embarrassment, pushing past her to where she’d done the exact same the night before, emptying what was left in his stomach from their last meal.

                “Trunks?”

                Her voice was full of confusion and a bit of fear on his behalf, and Trunks managed to pull himself together, giving her a nod of thanks when she handed him a hand towel to wipe his mouth with. “She… she killed her mate,” he whispered in horror. “Why… how…”

                “I don’t know,” Usagi answered gently as she knelt beside him and hugged him like he’d hugged her the night before. “Do you have any idea why she would do this?”

                “Yeah, but… I still can’t begin to understand it. Saiyans… we can’t harm our mates. It’s blasphemy to even think of doing such a thing. Gods, I don’t even want to think about it,” he admitted as he tried to pull himself together. “Come on, I’ll skin it and dress it like yesterday, and then you and I are getting started on the treehouse idea. The sooner we’re sleeping high off the ground, the happier I’ll be.”

                “Well, then let’s start on that now. I’ll just put the bull in my subspace like the others and—“ Trunks vigorously shaking his head stopped her, and she lifted a questioning eyebrow. “Why not?”

                “Because she left it as an apology, that’s why. It would be rude not to immediately accept it. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but my educated guess is that she killed him for trying to kill you without warning. He came and challenged me to my face,” Trunks explained seriously, “and he could have challenged you as well. But he had his claws out rather than in, so it wasn’t a challenge. It was attempted murder, and because of the way he went about it, it was highly dishonorable. He should have never went back to his clan, honestly. Not after coming into our territory to lay out a challenge to me, only to try and kill you. He was rightfully pissed about us killing his cubs, but every one of those cubs was full grown. There wasn’t a single adolescent in that pack. They were old enough to do stupid shit on their own without their daddy’s approval.”

                “Yeah. They were,” Usagi agreed sadly, feeling guilty about the bull’s death, just because he’d been justifiably upset about losing some of his cubs. Yes, their own lives had depended on those grown cubs dying, but she couldn’t help but wish that there had been a better way to handle things. “Come on, let’s get this done and over with. Then we can wash and eat.”

                “No meat for breakfast,” Trunks half-asked, half-stated quietly. “You got any fruit in there? Maybe some granola or something?”

                “Yeah,” she answered, hugging him once more before pulling the knife they’d used yesterday and going over to the carcass. “I can do this if you want to tell me how to as I go. It’s gross and I hate blood, but you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Trunks.”

                “No, but you can help me. Give me another knife,” he sighed, holding out his hand as he joined her.

##########################################

                It took over three hours to skin and dress the massive beast, even with the two of them working together and Usagi learning quickly how to separate the hide from the muscle, and then watching Trunks carefully to figure out how best to cut through joints to extract all of the edible meat.

                All the while she was fighting her gag reflex, grateful that they hadn’t eaten breakfast before tackling the hard work, and Usa was immeasurably thankful when Trunks took care of all the offal without even asking for help. Hell, he could probably see how green her face was just from looking at it all up close.

                “I’ll put away all the meat while you take care of the fur,” she offered once it was all properly cut and laid out on a sheet. “And then I’ll wash that… ugh, and then myself,” she added as she fought down the millionth urge to vomit.

                “Sure thing, let me know when you’re done,” Trunks replied, trying not to laugh at how utterly covered in blood she was. He probably wasn’t any better—hell, they both probably looked like they’d just walked right out of one of the old battles of legend as the sole victors.

                It was only when all the meat was put up and she was rolling up the soiled sheet that she noticed him staring, and Usagi turned and blushed self-consciously at his heavy regard. “What? Oh gods, I’ve got blood in my hair, don’t I? Crap, Trunks, don’t look at me, wait ‘til I’m cleaned up!” She half-laughed.

                “Blood looks good on you,” he answered, only just barely managing to make it sound like a joke at the last second. For a moment there, he’d nearly given into his beast’s whisperings, especially at the sight of the blood smeared across her lower lip, bringing to mind the thought of her teeth sinking into his shoulder.

                “Phhht… hahaha! You’re such an ass!” She laughed as she turned from him and took off at a fast walk to the lake, more than eager to get all of the blood out of her hair. 

                “Oh gods, are you insane?” He hissed at his beast once she was out of earshot, his hands going to his groin to adjust the rogue boner that had sprung up at the thought of her biting him.

                _I thought you’d appreciate the mental image,_ his beast drawled lazily, immensely pleased with Trunks’s physical reaction. _Why don’t you just go down to the water and kindly offer to help her wash… and then maybe she’ll do the same for you?_

 _I’m not fucking her,_ Trunks grumbled.

                _I never said a thing about fucking, and here you are thinking about it. Told you I’d eat my tail if you didn’t continue to deny wanting to bed her,_ it chuckled darkly. _I was just suggesting a little help washing up, that’s all. All that soap sliding along each other’s skin, the blood staining the water red… you could help each other with all those hard-to-reach spots… her fingertips teasing you as she washes your tail…_

“That’s enough,” Trunks growled.

                _You’d smell her arousal in the air before you were even done with her hair, and then you could help her find some release and—_

“SHUT UP. I’m NOT going down there until she comes back fully clothed, do you understand me!? I’m NOT mating with her!”

                _Oh come on, at least let me finish painting the picture in your head, boy,_ Kio responded before retreating with a soft chuckle.

                “Asshole beast,” Trunks muttered as he began to treat the fur with his ki, heaving a long sigh at how unbelievably huge it was. It was over twice the size of a king size bed, ebony in color except for some patches of white, and he found himself worrying about the spots of ivory for the tenth time as he began to work the flesh that the fur was attached to.

                White fur so early in the season was a bad thing; it meant that winter would be early, it would be harsh, and it would be unbelievably cold, especially as far north as they’d landed on the planet. They could leave, sure—he could fly them somewhere further south, but that had its own complications, including the fact that anyone finding his ship without him nearby would assume he was dead and leave. Then there would be other predators to deal with in other locales, some of them bigger than the _wer’kha_. Sure, they weren’t as smart, but it didn’t mean that they weren’t dangerous.

                And besides, they’d just come to an understanding with the matriarch… he hoped so, at least.


	4. Chapter 4

“Yeah, the fur’s white,” Usagi sighed as she summoned a couple _wer’kha_ from her subspace and promptly put them right back in. “Well, at least we’ll have pretty clothes, right?” She asked, trying to stay positive.

                “We’ll have to make sure you’re bundled up adequately, so yeah, you’ll have lots of pretty clothes,” Trunks agreed, trying his best not to sound nasty. “At least I can use my ki to stay warm, so we can just focus on dressing you for the weather before we make anything for me.”

                “I have an overcoat and some boots, I think,” she mumbled, reaching into her subspace to pull them out.

                “They’re not even wool,” Trunks sighed the moment he inspected them. “No, this won’t do at all, especially not when the temperatures drop to fifty below. Let’s just pray that the weather holds until we can get a shelter up and ready. Then we can worry about clothing once we’re inside and warm.”

                She was disappointed that her clothes weren’t good enough, so she decided not to mention that she was wearing one of her last pair of clean pants. She had dozens of dresses tucked away, but Usagi doubted that Trunks would be happy that she lacked any practical clothing. “Ok, so how are we doing this?” She asked as she looked up into the trees and decided to think about how she could keep from ruining what little clothing she did have.

                “I’ll fly you up into that branch,” he said as he pointed, “and then I’ll fly up with the floor and settle it into that gap. Then we get to cut around it all to fit it in snugly. Sound good?”

                “Have I mentioned that I really don’t care for being really, really high up? Climbing a tree ten feet in the air’s one thing, but that’s like, really high!”

                “At least five times, yes. Don’t worry, though, you’ll be tied to me once we get up on the board to saw it. Until then, just hang on tight to the branch and don’t move, ok?” The way she clung to him for dear life when he scooped her up softened him a bit, and he sighed heavily. “Look, princess, I’d leave you down here, but that’s risking an attack from the _wer’kha_. We have to stay together as much as possible. I didn’t even like the thought of splitting up just the bathe, honestly.”

                “Yeah, I know,” she agreed, summoning all of her courage as he lifted into the air and she buried her face against his chest. “And we really need to get you a shirt or something, Trunks.”

                “Why? Are you distracted by my glorious physique?” He teased, glad that he could distract her with anything at all as they reached the tree tops and the branch that she needed to sit on until he got the board in place. “Ok, Usa, you need to let go,” he chuckled when she shook her head stubbornly and latched onto him tighter. “Seriously, Usa. Let go. Just sit there, hang onto the branch, and close your eyes, ok? Trust me.”

                “Kay,” she answered miserably, cracking her eyes open briefly to grab onto the limb and then squeezing her eyes shut tightly again. “Now hurry up!”

                “Yes, ma’am!” He laughed, trying his best to lighten the mood so that she wasn’t shaking and freaking out too much. True to his word, he was quick, and darted down to pick up what would be their flooring, fighting to get beneath the cumbersome piece of wood so that it would rest flush against the tree branches.

                After ten minutes of fiddling with it, he finally went back to Usagi and couldn’t help but laugh when she launched herself at him, clinging to him for dear life as she yelled at him for taking too long. “I tried my best!” He argued as he lifted her up onto the board and gingerly set her down in the center. “There, not too bad, huh? It’s barely wobbling, so we shouldn’t have to cut around it too much to make sure it’s stable.”

                “Good. Now, here. Rope,” she muttered, taking it upon herself to thread it through his belt loops and then her own for good measure before she tied it off. “And if I die, I swear to the gods I’m coming back to haunt you.”

                “Wow, you’re sure gonna be a lot of fun when we have to sleep up here tonight,” he teased as he nodded towards the first branch on the list, towing the princess behind him as he moved carefully.

                Usa squealed in terror when the board tilted the very moment he’d sawed it so that it would settle against the branch better, but he was there with a reassuring smile and a pat on her back before nodding towards the opposite side. “Now to even it out. Then we do those two over there… and then those two. And then we should be done with the sawing and ready to get some nails to hold it in place. Ok?”

                “Kay,” she whimpered. “And walls. I want walls as soon as possible… I didn’t think I’d be so freaked out about being this high, honestly, I thought I’d be fine once I was on something solid!” Usa also wanted to add something about how having him there to steady her and keep her sane was helping, but she assumed he’d think her too emotional or sentimental, so she kept to herself and hung onto him whenever she could without getting in the way.

                “There, all done,” Trunks said an hour later as they walked around a few times to make sure the flooring was stable. “It’s not huge, but it’ll be easy enough to keep it warm once we figure out how to get that fireplace up here and we put up walls. You ok?”

                “Yeah, I will be, thanks,” she sighed. “Come on, let’s see about getting the walls up?”

                “Yeah, we’ve got enough light to do two of them, I think. Are you going to be fine with standing on the edge to hold the first one steady while I nail the second one in place?” He asked in concern as he flew back down to the ground with her in his arms.

                “I’m gonna have to be,” she countered, “since we really don’t have any other options.”

                Usagi surprised herself by not freaking out when Trunks had to bring her up first and then the walls, and she tried her best to get comfortable as she sat right in the center of what would be their home until help came, looking around at branches surrounding her and the sizeable gap that Trunks had made with the saw so that their walls and a roof would fit. It would be nice once the walls were up, she decided. And definitely more so when they managed to figure out how to install the fireplace that had come with the capsule house. “Gods, I’m going to have to sew,” she realized aloud, groaning and flopping back onto the wood. “I suck at sewing!”

                “Thankfully, you’ll be sewing fur,” Trunks chuckled as he landed and piled all four walls neatly to the side. “It’s a lot easier than you think, Usagi, trust me. You use an awl to make holes, then you use leather strips and thread them through and pull it all together. Without a machine to do it, getting a sewing needle through the hide is really hard.”

                “And how would you know?” She giggled. “You don’t seem like much of a seamstress to me, Trunks. Don’t tell me your father actually condoned you learning how to—“

                “Don’t talk about my father,” he ground out angrily.

                “Oh,” Usa choked out, surprised by his anger. She’d gotten too comfortable, she’d forgotten who and what he was, and she blinked away tears as she nodded. “I… I was only…”

                “Fuck,” he sighed. “Look… just don’t talk about my father, ok?” He repeated, his tone gentler and more understanding. She hadn’t meant anything by it and he knew that; she’d just been teasing and innocently poking fun at him. “Come on, princess, let’s get this wall up.”

                He was back to calling her ‘princess’ again, she realized as she moved to help him, trying her best not to meet his eyes as she trembled at the edge of the flooring and tried not to look down. They’d made so many strides towards being friends in only a couple days, they were on first name terms, and now he was back to calling her ‘princess’ because she’d opened her stupid mouth. “I’m sorry,” she whispered when he came back around to start nailing the wood into place. “Trunks… please don’t be mad at me.”

                “And I’m sorry I snapped,” he offered, briefly taking her hand and squeezing it. “I’m not mad. Father’s just… a sore spot. It’s not you, I would have snapped at my best friend, Goten, for talking about my father. Tell you what, pick something that I can’t talk about _ever_. Then we’ll be even, ok?”

                “Um… crap, I’ll have to get back to you on that,” Usagi answered honestly. “I really don’t have a lot of taboo subjects. Rei says I’m an open book.”

                “I’ve noticed that,” he said dryly as he started shoving nails into the wood with his thumb, not needing a hammer thanks to his superior strength, and grateful that he’d salvaged hundreds of nails from the capsule house, more than enough for them to not need anything made by hand from the thin, compromised metal of his ship. “Gods, I’m glad that Mom never lets the architects spare expenses on these things before they encapsulate them,” he remarked as he made his way down, steadily nailing the wall to the floor.

                “I don’t remember Aunt Bulma,” Usagi admitted softly. “Ami says she’s really, really smart.”

                “Mom’s one hell of an engineer,” Trunks agreed as he neared the end of the wall. “Ok. Are you fine without being tied to me for a minute? I’m going to secure the other wall and I need you to hold this one straight. Here,” he said, sliding the level across the floor to her. “Make sure it’s straight.”

                “Kay,” Usa replied, glad that he wasn’t mad for bringing up his mom. Good, Bulma wasn’t a bad thing to talk about. “Just don’t look down, right?” She asked with a nervous smile, her bravery bolstered substantially when his lips twitched up in a smirk and he actually winked at her.

                Trunks didn’t miss her blush and couldn’t help the little boost to his ego at the knowledge that she found him attractive, but the moment he felt his tail swishing in interest, he got his hormones under control and wrapped it around his waist. _Cut it out, Kio._

                _That’s alright,_ his beast purred, _plenty more time for flirting when you’re lying in the bed with her half-naked._

_Shut the fuck up and let me get this wall up, you little asshole._

_Yes, dear._

“It’s level?” Trunks asked aloud, waiting for her nod before he started nailing, checking after every nail by glancing at her and waiting for her to nod again, setting up a rhythm that made the work quick and easy. She was doing great, too, concentrating on the board rather than the fact that she was kneeling right at the edge of the floor, focusing on the task at hand and him to keep herself calm. She trusted him, and it surprised him that that meant a lot. “We got that done quicker than I thought and there’s still some daylight left… wanna get the third one up real quick?”

                More than happy to wall them in as much as possible so that she could pretend she was on the ground, Usagi nodded emphatically and practically skipped to the next corner, beaming at how easy it was to keep the second wall stable now that it was nailed to the first. “Ready!” She declared once she’d checked it with the level and fixed it.

                They worked together wonderfully as a team, and Trunks was done securing the wall to the second and to the floor in no time, coming around to stretch and observe their handiwork with a prideful grin. “Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Just pray that the weather holds and I’ll try to fashion a roof out of the wood that’s left tomorrow morning. Then the fireplace and the fourth wall around it, and a door behind us. Might take a couple days, but we’ll get there.”

                “And then I get busy making me pants and a coat and you some new boots,” she said cheerfully, only to stop when her stomach growled. “My belly says it’s dinner-thirty, Trunks.”

                “Mmm… steak. Yeah, we really should’ve eaten more at breakfast and lunch, but it was worth getting all of this ready on time. Come on, sweetheart, I’ll fly you down.”

                Blushing prettily at the pet name, Usagi went to him without hesitation and felt a rush of warmth when he scooped her up, feeling totally safe curled against him despite the height. “How about we cook everything and then take it up and eat it?” She suggested once she was on the ground. “It’d be nice, you know? Our first meal in our new home.”

                “Yeah, sure, why not?”

                Once on the ground, Usagi went about restarting the fire and was all smiles once she pulled out some meat and Trunks started cutting up sizeable portions for the both of them, and then it was back up to the treehouse once it was cooked and on plates, where Usagi set up the bed linens and pillows and flopped down onto one of them, grinning ear to ear. “I’ve got something special, I think we should celebrate,” she said brightly as she pulled a cake out of her subspace.

                “Oh hell yeah, chocolate,” Trunks said in approval. “Dinner first, though, we can’t fill up on junk.”

                “You know… hang on… yup,” she said happily as she pulled a bowl of rice out. “Here, we can share. We should definitely have some sides… on the bright side, if we need vegetables, I have something like five thousand ham and turkey sandwiches stored in there that have lettuce and tomato on them.”

                “Gods… that many? Really?” He sputtered, taking the spoon she offered as well as a mouthful of rice. Sure, only mates shared food, but he wasn’t about to turn down something to go with the steaks. “I thought you were joking about taking one a day.”

                “I dunno why I did it, except that I remember at the start of the war I was worried about famine and drought and all that. I was worried that people would go hungry. Sure, I was only eight or nine, but I’ve always worried about other people… anyway, I remember saying something to Setsuna about it once, and she told me that if I was that worried, then I should save a little food every day and store it in my subspace. So I did. And now we need it, so I’m glad I did it,” she finished with a smile.

                “Did she tell you to hoard other stuff, too?” He chuckled.

                “Actually… yes,” she said slowly. “I asked Haruka once about supplies in case of emergencies when a battle happened pretty close to the palace, and Setsuna immediately offered to stock me up. So I have lots of things like bandages and first aid kits, too. Even some survival gear, I think. Not a tent, though. There’s a lot of things in there that I think me might be able to use, I suspect. It’ll just take time to go through it all, especially if I do a total subspace dump.”

                “What… like dropping it all at once or something?” Trunks asked curiously. “You can do that?” When she nodded, he scooted back and pointed at the floor. “Go for it, we’ll go through it right now.”

                “No,” she said with a slow shake of her head and a shudder. “Trunks, you don’t understand. A full subspace dump…” Usagi looked around at that and just shook her head again, her eyes wide. “…it’d be piled over our heads and spilling out over the edge. We’d need to do it on the ground, first thing in the morning, and then we _still_ wouldn’t be done by sundown.”

                “Even minus the _wer’kha_ in there and all the sandwiches? Can you somehow only dump everything that’s _not_ food?”

                “Eh… I don’t know, honestly,” she muttered, scratching her head thoughtfully before taking a big bite of meat and chewing it slowly, letting out a pleased sound at the taste of medium-rare steak. “Kay, let me try something. You might want to move,” she giggled as she stuck a hand in her subspace pocket. Usa waited until he was behind her and concentrated hard, focusing only on dumping first-aid supplies, and when she felt a roll of gauze smack into her foot, she dared to open them and pumped a fist of triumph in the air. “Looks like I can save us some time!”

                “Heh… mostly,” Trunks quipped as he came around and picked up a few sandwiches, handing them over once he was sure that they were the only extra items that had come through.

                “Sorry, I’m still hungry and I couldn’t stop thinking about food,” she admitted sheepishly as she put them away.

                “Drop anything and everything electronic next,” he requested. “We might find something useful in there to call for help; if not, I’ve been thinking about trying to raise your ship out of the water. It won’t take me long, and maybe I can piece something together from the communicator if you have an item that has a usable transmitter. If not, then I’m thinking it might be time to start circling the planet daily to check for anyone trying to rescue us.”

                “I really hope I find something,” Usagi whispered, “because the thought of being separated from you for more than an hour scares me, Trunks. You said that it’s hard to sense ki on this planet, so what happens if you can’t find me?”

                “Shit, you’re right… I don’t know, I’ll think of something. In the meantime, let’s see those electronics, and maybe I won’t need to leave, alright?” He asked as he sat down beside her and squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. “And don’t worry, if I can’t think of something concrete to keep from losing my way back, then I won’t do it. I promise.”

                “Thanks,” she said with a watery smile before shoving all of the first aid supplies to the side and closing her eyes to concentrate, her hand disappearing into her subspace once more. “I think that did it?” She asked as she cracked open an eye. “Yup, and no sandwiches, yay!” She giggled before she picked up the steak at the top of her pile and took a huge bite from it while Trunks slid forward on the fur and eyed the sizable pile. “Anything useful in there?” She asked with her mouth full.

                “Um… well… I don’t know yet, but I think you called in a few extra items,” he purred, his eyes dancing with mirth as he bit down on his lower lip in a weak attempt to keep from laughing his ass off.

                “Huh? What are you—“ Usagi’s jaw dropped and her face burned redder than ever when he picked up a long pink object and he pushed a button that made it vibrate. “SWEET SELENE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” She shrieked at the top of her lungs as she shoved her plate to the side and dove on him, pinning him to the fur and sitting on his chest as she snatched the adult toy out of his hand and promptly shoved it in her subspace.

                “Phhht… oh gods… I swear I’m going to die trying not to laugh!” He cackled. “Did you use it and just forget it was there!?”

                “I—YOU—WHY—“ Her face turning an interesting shade of purple, Usagi fought down the urge to punch him in the face before finishing her sentence. “I NEVER USED IT, TRUNKS! IT WAS A GAG GIFT FROM MINA AND I WAS SO EMBARRASSED THAT I JUST STUCK IT IN THERE!”

                “Phhht… oh gods… gag gift! S—stuck it in there!? By Dra… oh gods, I’m gonna die!” Trunks laughed hysterically. “Please stop talking before you make me laugh to death!”

                Usagi took several deep breaths before replying, her voice firm and even as she stared him down. “Trunks, you asked me about the one thing I never want to discuss? Ever? _This_ is that thing.”

                “Heh… you’re the boss, sweetheart… but tell me, be honest,” he purred, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. “Just between you and me, did you even try it?”

                “Seriously?” She sputtered. “I just said I don’t want to talk about the stupid fudging thing, Trunks.”

                “My father didn’t mind sewing as long as it was a survival skill. Embroidery and decorative stuff wouldn’t have been tolerated. Not because it was considered girly, but because it would be labelled as a waste of time in Saiyan culture. We’re not much into interior decorating or clothing design. Now… I answered your question,” he offered up with a genuine smile, very aware of her warmth seeping into his chest through her jeans and of how his beast was surprisingly quiet. “Answer mine?”

                “Not that one,” she mumbled in embarrassment. “I’m a virgin, if you haven’t guessed, so I didn’t use that one.”

                “But another one?” He guessed slowly, fighting the urge to lick his lips at the thought of the princess getting herself off in the middle of the night, wondering what she sounded like as she came.

                “Haruka and Michiru gave it to me for my eighteenth birthday, and it’s in my night… sta… oh, _shit_ ,” she whispered, diving off of him to dig through the pile wildly, tossing things to the side.

                Trunks was tempted to join her in her search so he could maybe find it and tease her into trading if she wanted it back, but he decided to just sit there and enjoy the entertainment as she went a little batshit in her attempt to find her toy. He didn’t have to wait long, either, and he lifted an eyebrow in surprise when she snatched up a pink thing that looked like a rabbit’s head with bunny ears. “Huh… why does it have those ears… oh,” he realized with a smirk as she stuffed it in her subspace and frowned at him.

                “I only tried it the one time,” she grumped, absolutely mortified by the last five minutes.

                “Really?” he asked in astonishment. “I mean… I don’t want to give or receive too much information, but I thoroughly enjoy um… you know. Not sure how to politely talk about it in front of a woman, honestly.”

                “I… gods, I can’t believe I’m having this discussion with _anyone_ ,” she groaned. “Look, it was nice and all, but it was so impersonal. I didn’t like it very much. I kept feeling like… I don’t know. Lonely. I wanted someone there with me to share the experience, I guess. Or participate or something. I mean, it just felt really weird without someone kissing me or talking. That first time should have been special, you know? But it wasn’t. Now, can we _please_ never _ever_ talk about this ever again?” She finished with a whine, her face beet red.

                Trunks’s beast was finally putting in his two credits, suggesting all sorts of offers he could make her if she wanted someone to kiss and pet her and whisper sweetly in her ear while she got herself off, but the prince ignored them in favor of scooping up her hand and pressing his lips to the back of it. “I won’t bring it up again, sweetheart. Promise.”

                “Thanks,” she sighed, self-consciously fidgeting as she began to dig through the pile herself, her eyes constantly scanning for anything else that she may have forgotten that could possibly embarrass the life out of her.

                “Hrm… I’m not seeing anything that might have a transmitter,” Trunks said mournfully as he joined in, praying to the gods that he wouldn’t find any more adult items. There weren’t any, though, thankfully, and when Usagi let out a little cheer, he turned to look, hoping that she’d found something useful. “Oh. What is it?”

                “It’s a little computer that Setsuna had me hang onto for her years ago, but she forgot to come back and get it! It does a lot of neat things, I remember her telling me about it when she asked me to hold it for her,” Usagi explained before passing it along to Trunks. 

                “What? She doesn’t have a subspace?” He snorted as he took it and turned it on.

                “She does, but she said that the time gates do funny things to electronics in general. Something about batteries and magnets not doing well at the gates… oh! Hang on! I’ve got a compass in here, too!” She squealed, reaching into her subspace and yanking it out, offering it up to him proudly.

                “Now _this_ will come in handy,” Trunks said with a decisive nod, shoving it in his pocket before going back to the computer. “And this, too. It seems to be some kind of universal encyclopedia, Usagi. Hm… oh hell, yeah. Usa, there’s all kind of shit in this thing, including stuff about fireplaces… oh wow, here. Read everything you can on the _wer’kha_ when you get a chance, ok? It’ll be easier for you to deal with them and know what to do and what not to do when we encounter them. Shit… Usagi, I think that this is easily the most useful thing we’ve got right now. It even has a guide to edible plants for every known planet.”

                Pleased beyond belief that she’d managed to find something useful, Usagi beamed as she continued to devour her supper, making sure to leave Trunks half of the rice and finally giggling at him when he was still fiddling with the computer when she was finished eating. “Trunks, your food’s getting cold.”

                “Oh, sorry,” he chuckled, closing the device and handing it over before going back to his meal. “I was reading about how to install the fireplace without smoking us out or screwing it up just for us to die in our sleep from carbon monoxide poisoning. I think I’ve got it figured out, though. Tomorrow morning I’ll raise your ship and leave it out to dry some while I work on the fireplace, then we’ll install the fourth wall and the ceiling… and I think we should put the door in the ceiling instead of one of the walls. What do you think?”

                “Well, since you’re going to have to taxi me to the ground and back, it’s up to you,” Usagi said with a touch of embarrassment. “I don’t suppose you can teach me how to fly, can you? It would certainly save you from me waking you at night just because I have to pee.”

                “Yeah, we’ll work on teaching you once we’ve got shelter,” Trunks said without hesitation. Two days prior, he wouldn’t have been too keen on the idea of teaching a Solarian how to fly since it would have given them an advantage in battle, but now it would increase their chances of survival until help arrived. If Usagi could fly, he wouldn’t have to worry about her being attacked by a _wer’kha_ and being unable to flee. “Huh… you going to be ok with heights while you’re flying?” He wondered suddenly.

                “I’m going to have to be,” she sighed. “Just don’t make me think about it right now, alright? I need to learn, Trunks. I don’t want to be a burden on you just because I have a stupid fear of heights.”

                “Alright, but if you think it’s too much to handle at any point during the training, just let me know and we’ll stop. Now… slice me a piece of that cake,” he ordered as he held out his empty plate.

                “Yes, dear,” she giggled teasingly, blushing when he flashed her a grin and winked at her.

#############################################

                “Yay, you only had to endure one night of me burying my knees in you!” Usagi cheered as she slid under the covers several feet away from him and tucked the fur around her snugly for added warmth.

                “Thank the gods for that,” Trunks chuckled, even though he was secretly wishing she hadn’t given a thought to the fact that the _wer’kha_ couldn’t see them all the way up in the treehouse. It killed him to admit it to himself, but he’d liked having someone to hold as he’d slept, and even though he had absolutely no intentions of mating her, holding her close as they’d both dozed off had been one of the best feelings he’d ever known. “Night, Usa,” he mumbled as he slid in as well and shucked off his pants under the covers.

                “Hey,” she snorted when she saw him toss the sweats to the side, “seriously, Trunks? Not with me in the bed!”

                “I hate sleeping with clothes on,” he grumbled, “and it’s not like you’re gonna be snuggling up against me, so why not?”

                “Ugh… men. _Fine_ ,” she sighed, “but I’m going to elbow you in the dick if you try to cuddle up to me naked. Night,” she added when he just chuckled and nodded in response before closing his eyes.

                “Night, Usa.”

                Trunks dozed off quickly despite his beast suggesting repeatedly that he put his pants back on and make an excuse to spoon the princess from behind, but his sleep was short-lived when he was woken an hour later by Usagi tossing and turning—she’d been doing quite a lot of it since he’d fallen asleep, according to his beast. “Usagi, you ok?” He mumbled tiredly into his pillow.

                “…I’m fine,” she whispered after some hesitation. “I’m sorry I woke you, go back to sleep.”

                “What’s wrong?” He sighed, catching the tremor of fear in her voice.

                “It’s stupid.”

                “Try me.”

                Turning towards him in the dark, Usagi could tell that he was looking at her thanks to the half-moon that was just rising, and she blushed at how cowardly she was about to sound. “I can’t stop thinking about how high we are,” she admitted, mortified by the fact. “I know I’m safe, I know you nailed this thing into over a dozen branches between two strong trees, but still…”

                The moon princess heard him sigh, then watched his shadow roll over and fidget beneath the covers for a minute, and when he tossed his pillow towards her and scooted over and pulled her to him, she blushed hotly, recalling that he wasn’t wearing any pants. Neither was she, but at least she was wearing underwear—but then she felt the soft sweatpants she’d given him and she smiled up at him in genuine surprise. “You don’t have to do this two nights in a row, Trunks.”

                “Eh, it’s what friends do, right?” He countered as he fidgeted some more and got comfortable, slipping into the same position they’d slept in the night before, with him on his side and Usagi resting her head on his arm, both of them wrapped around the other. “And besides,” he teased, “I need you well-rested for all the work we’re going to do tomorrow. I can’t wait to see your reaction to standing on the roof; I’m going to need your help nailing it in place.”

                “Oh, joy.”

                “Phht… don’t worry, There’s some porch railings we can use to sort of make it safe if we want to go up top… in fact, I think I’m just going to put the door in the ceiling instead of the wall and we’ll use a ladder to get out,” he mused aloud. “That way I don’t have to worry about you opening a door and just falling right out because of a wind gust.”

                That was actually pretty thoughtful of him, and Usagi smiled into his chest as she closed her eyes and acknowledged that he smelled wonderful even though they’d been working and sweating all day long. In fact, just his scent and that gentle purr he was emitting was lulling her to sleep like it had the night before. _Heh, Trunks is turning into my security blanket,_ she giggled in her mind. “Thanks, Trunks,” she whispered as she began to doze, “you’re a good friend.”

                “You’re welcome, sweetheart. Now go to sleep? Please?”

                “Mmhmm. Night.”

                “Night.”


	5. Chapter 5

“Promise me that you’ll be careful.”

                “Usagi, I promise I’ll be careful,” Trunks sighed as he stripped off his boots.

                “Don’t give me that patronizing tone, young man,” she sputtered in reply, folding her arms over her chest and staring him down the with look her own mother used on her.

                “And don’t call me ‘young man’ when I’m six months older than you… young lady,” he countered, grinning slyly when she rolled her eyes and sat down on the warm sand with a huff, even though she was still clearly worried. That worry did him in, and Trunks came over and kneeled and kissed the crescent moon on her forehead before giving her his best reassuring smile. “Seriously, I can hold my breath for fifteen minutes and warm myself with my ki. I’ll be just fine, Usagi. I promise.”

                A sudden hug caught him off guard, but it warmed him from the inside out, and even as he ignored his beast’s usual suggestions, he found himself returning it in earnest, burying his face in her hair and nuzzling her affectionately. For a Lunarian, she wasn’t so bad, he had to admit that much. Only three days together, and he felt closer to her than anyone he’d ever known, including Goten and his own mother. She was a good friend even if he refused to mate her, and when they finally got rescued he was going to have a long talk with his grandfather and father about making peace with her people. “I’ll come back,” he whispered when she finally released him. “Just sit tight while I try to find the thing. How far did you swim?”

                “I honestly don’t know, Trunks,” Usagi admitted as she pointed at her footprints. “But it wasn’t straight out from right there. There was a riptide pulling me that way,” she informed him, pointing to her right before swinging her finger to the far left. “So I likely crashed down that way.”

                “Well, it’s a general direction at least, so it shouldn’t take me too long. Stay put?” He asked with a wink. “Then we’ll make a fire and eat some breakfast and get started on the fireplace.”

                “Yeah, sounds good.” Usagi let him go then, and when he flew out over the water and finally dove beneath the waves, she held her breath, praying silently to her grandmother that he wouldn’t die and leave her alone, that he’d come back to her unharmed, with or without the ship. That was when she realized that it was no longer just about being alone for her—if something happened to Trunks it would simply break her heart.

                “He’s not a bad man. He’s not at all like Rei and Mako would make him out to be. He’s Saiyan, yes… but it’s only been three days and he’s shown me that there’s a gentle, sweet side to him. When we get out of here, I’m going to make sure that there’s a truce. He’s my friend now and I refuse to let my people continue to go to war with his,” she decided aloud, just in time to see the subject of her monologue emerge from the water, her small ship held aloft as if it weighed nothing. “Great job!” She shouted as she jumped to her feet and waved, grinning ear to ear not only because he’d found her ship so quickly, but because he’d come back to her as he’d promised.

                “I don’t think we’ll find anything of much use,” he said as he dumped it on the sand and started climbing up to the shattered glass of the cockpit. “Everything’s been flooded and salt water’s corrosive to electronics, but maybe… I don’t know. _Maybe_ we’ll be able to use something to make a transmitter.”

                “I had my communicator out of my subspace when you shot my ship, so if you could find that…? I don’t know. I know that Ami’s is waterproof, so maybe mine is, too. Want me to help you look, Trunks? I feel funny just standing here and watching,” she added when he dropped down into the cockpit and out of sight.

                “Eh… I don’t know, Usagi. There’s a lot of broken glass in here and your shoes aren’t exactly the most resilient,” he called out from inside.

                “Trunks, I don’t like feeling useless,” she admitted softly, knowing that his Saiyan hearing would catch her words. “Please, I’ll be careful, alright? And who knows, maybe I’ll find something.”

                He could relate to that, considering who his father was, so Trunks floated back out and scooped her up, gingerly setting her on her feet inside of the soaked innards of the ship, but only after using his feet to sweep the worst of the glass away. “Just be careful not to get cut, Usa.”

                “I’ll be ok,” she assured him sweetly before carefully making her way right to the jumpseat and looking around without actually touching anything, bending down to look beneath the dash and her pilot’s chair. Her face lit up at the sight of something pink shoved far back under the chair and wedged in the metal and some debris, and she reached in without a second thought, only to yelp when she was stabbed by a piece of wet glass just as she snagged her communicator.

                “Usa!?” Trunks scurried over the moment he heard her, and sure enough, her hand was bleeding. “Gods damn it,” he sighed as he squatted down beside her and took her injured hand, only to blink at the sight of silver in her blood. “Huh… never seen blood like that before.”

                “I’m a goddess, Trunks,” she replied with a blush. Gods, she hated to brag about her godhood more than anything; normal people always treated her differently because of it and she didn’t want Trunks to do the same.

                “Oh. I just thought your mother was a goddess and that you would… I don’t know, ascend one day or something. Here,” he offered, drawing her palm to his mouth to clean the cut with his tongue.

                “Ew! Trunks! What the hell!?” She yelled as she jerked her hand out of his grasp, only to stop and stare when he locked eyes with her and she noticed that his pupils were heavily dilated and he was purring loudly. “T—Trunks…?”

                The taste of his mate’s blood had set his beast off, and the prince was struggling internally, fighting the urge to pounce on her as he licked the remnants from his lips. “Sorry,” he finally rasped, “my Saiyan side’s coming out.”

                “Rei had said you guys were part animal or something, but I honestly thought she was pulling my leg,” Usa said slowly, keeping her eyes on him just in case he went crazy or something. “Was it the taste of blood or something? Do you guys normally lick wounds?”

                “No, I… just an animal instinct, as you said,” he half-lied, deciding to just let her think whatever she wanted. Anything was better than telling her that they’d felt the pull and that she was his destined mate. “I won’t do it again, sorry. Here, give me something to bind it with and I’ll wrap it for you.”

                Usagi did as he asked, handing him a handkerchief from her subspace as she presented her still-bleeding hand to him, and she didn’t miss how he stared at it for a long moment, licking his lips, a pained look on his face. “Trunks, you gonna be ok? Really? Maybe it has something to do with me being a goddess and your kind reacts badly to my blood?”

                “Yeah… maybe,” he practically panted as the sweet scent of the silver-edged crimson continued to fill his nose and his beast starting giving him pictures of them locked together, his teeth buried in her shoulder and his cock between her thighs. “Fuck… goddamnit,” he gasped out as his beast continued to purr for her and snapped at the leash. “Distract me, sweetheart… which… which goddess are you again? Your mother’s the… the moon goddess, yes?”

                “I’m the goddess of love,” Usagi replied as he wrapped her hand. “Oh no,” she added hurriedly when he lifted an eyebrow and licked his lips again, “not that kind of love! **_Love_** love. Compared to my sisters, it’s really not all that impressive, honestly. Rei blows things up, Ami freezes things, Mako electrocutes people, and Mina has all of the men flocking to her to lick her high heels. Me… I heal things. It’s not a horrible power, but I can’t even heal myself,” she sputtered. “See?”

                Trunks went from squatting to hitting his knees and falling against her heavily the moment her light manifested, and rather than demonstrating that she couldn’t heal her own hand, she found herself on her butt in broken glass, holding a warrior that had seven inches on her and at least a hundred pounds. “Trunks? Trunks! Are you ok!? Say something! What happened!?”

                “Mmm… _great_ ,” he drawled out happily, his purr rolling strong and loud as her light continued to fill him. His beast had relaxed—no, it was more than that. His beast was currently riding the waves of a euphoria he’d never known before, and both it and Trunks were convinced that if a warrior’s paradise really existed, it’d feel exactly like this. “Goddamn, Usa… don’t stop,” he purred when he felt her light starting to recede. “Feels so good, sweetheart… amazing… you’re so fucking amazing…”

                His lopsided smile and the peaceful look in his eyes made her giggle, and Usagi couldn’t help but idly run her fingers through his long, soaked hair, her fingertips tracing the definition of his upper back as she reached the end of the lavender strands. “Trunks, I think my light makes Saiyans drunk,” she guessed, laughing when he just nuzzled her again and his purr continued to vibrate throughout both of them.

                “Mmm… my little goddess of alcohol,” he sighed contentedly. “It usually takes a bathtub of liquor to make me feel this good… definitely the bestest power of them all.”

                “Phhht… you said bestest… I think it’s time to cut you off, Trunks,” she said gently as she drew her light back into the ginzuishou. “If you want more, you’ll have to wait until bedtime.”

                “Heh… makes me think of something else that feels good,” he chuckled, still happier than he’d ever been before and smiling into her hair. “Mmhmm… all that hair glowing in the moonlight… you’re so warm, Usa…”

                The blonde could only blush and choke on a protest as she wordlessly slapped his arm, glaring at him sternly when he drew back abruptly, his eyes wide and genuinely hurt. “What’d you do that for!?”

                “For… for thinking of… of _things_!” She shouted. “Bad things! What’s wrong with you!?”

                “Huh…? What are you—ooooh,” he laughed, patting her leg before standing and offering her a hand up, which she refused as she huffed loudly and folded her arms across her chest. “Usagi, I wasn’t thinking that,” he continued, still laughing softly. “I was thinking about holding you while we slept. Who’s the pervert _now_?”

                Blushing profusely, Usagi looked down in shame. “I’m so sorry, I thought you’d meant—“

                “Phht… Usa, I’m not mad,” he snorted as he pulled her to her feet and kissed her forehead. “Trust me, I’m perfectly fine with you thinking of me in a less than chaste manner. Not like it’s going to happen, though, I have my innocence to think of and I’d hardly give just _anyone_ my precious virtue,” he continued with a teasing grin.

                “Oh,” the princess stated as neutrally as possible, wondering whether or not he was joking around. Surely he wasn’t a virgin… was he? Nah. According to Rei and Mina, nearly every one of them was a sex-crazed maniac thanks to the fact that they were part animal… or something. Yet Trunks hadn’t once touched her inappropriately or made any attempts to get up her skirt, so she found herself wondering about his people and just how much was a rumor and not fact. “Trunks,” she began slowly, “how… ugh, this is going to sound so horribly racist,” she admitted softly.

                “Our people are at war, Usagi. I hated you until a few days ago. If you’re about to ask me a serious question without trying to be an asshole about it, I’ll answer without getting mad. I hope you’d do the same,” he added wryly.

                “Oh, sure. No problem,” she assured him as she nodded towards the entrance of the pod. “Come on, let’s get out of here first, I found my communicator.”

                “Awesome!” He scooped her up carefully then and flew her out of the ship, setting her down on the sand and looking at her uninjured hand expectantly. “Well?” His face fell and his hopes dissolved when she uncurled her fingers to reveal that the device’s screen had been cracked, and water was beneath the screen… and all of the wires and everything else were likely soaked as well.

                “Maybe we can dry it out,” she suggested, forcing herself to remain positive. If she didn’t, she’d surely cry; hope was the only thing she could latch onto to keep her from having a breakdown in the face of the odds that they’d be rescued in a timely fashion. “You find anything in there?”

                “The metal’s really the only useful thing,” Trunks sighed as he surveyed the ship with a keen eye and noted certain parts of it that could be used. “Come on, let’s just get to work on the fireplace and away from here. If I have to look at all of that fried equipment much longer I’ll wind up destroying the ship out of spite. I might as well try and channel that energy into something useful.”

                Usagi went to him without hesitation, hugging him tightly even as he lifted her into the air with him, trembling nervously as she willed herself not to open her eyes and look down when he flew high and they shot towards their treehouse. She was still learning to trust that he wouldn’t drop her, and while she knew that intellectually, her phobia didn’t give a crap about rationality and she was glad that he seemed to understand that.

                “There, set your feet down,” he finally told her. “We’re right in the middle.” The look of relief on her face as she opened her eyes made him smile, and Trunks nodded back towards the ground in the direction of the capsule house that they were salvaging to build their home. “You going to be ok for a few minutes? I’m going to grab the fireplace and pray that the stuff in that little computer of yours is accurate. Otherwise we’re going to get smoked out within fifteen minutes.”

                “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen… and yeah, I’m ok. I’m going to get some rice out of my subspace and put it in a baggie with my communicator. I dropped my phone in the toilet one time and Ami had me do that; it worked pretty well, too.”

                “Good luck, maybe we’ll get it working tomorrow and we can try to call for help. Stay put, I’m going to try and lift that entire wall up here with the fireplace to save us some extra work.”

                Trunks took off then, and Usagi quickly got to work, but she was done placing the waterlogged communicator in a bag of rice in only a minute. Not wanting to just sit there and twiddle her thumbs, she pulled out her computer and started going through all of the information she could find about awls and sewing fur. “Well, that’s simple enough,” she remarked, going to a clean part of the floor and calling in the bones of the first _wer’kha_ they’d killed, trying not to grimace at the sight of the picked-clean skeleton that Trunks had had her stash away early that morning.

                The ribs caught her eye first since they already tapered to a natural  point, and Usagi decided to try one of them first, using her saw to remove an end of a rib six inches long before putting everything back in her subspace. “Thank the gods for this thing,” she said to herself as she went through the small computer and found instructions for how to sharpen the bone in her other hand. “Sandpaper. Do I even have any of that?” She asked aloud as she stuck her hand in her subspace, surprised when the requested item was immediately in her hand. “Huh… well, that’s lucky.”

                Usagi got to work right away, and twenty minutes had passed when she heard Trunks return, sparing him and the wall with the fireplace still in it a fleeting glance before she got absorbed in her efforts once more.

                “What you making?”

                “An awl… you wouldn’t know how to cut fur, would you?” She asked, waiting for a yes before pulling a _wer’kha_ fur out and a sharp knife. “I wanted to make both of us some boots,” she explained, finally looking up to see that he’d already secured the fireplace and the wall. “Oh, wow, that was fast! Great job, Trunks!”

                Proud of his accomplishment, the prince puffed up a little at her praise and nodded. “I’ll get the roof on it in a little bit. For now, I’ll cut you as many fur pieces as you need… shit. We need some leather for you to sew with,” he realized.

                “There’ll be leftover strips of fur,” Usagi said simply. “I don’t know if leather would be better since I’ve never done this before, but will strips of fur be fine until we can find something else?”

                “Yeah, it’ll just be harder to work with since the fur’s long and thick,” Trunks explained as he sat and took off a boot to use as a pattern for the better pair she was going to make him, marking the skin with a pen she supplied. “You might want to sew them so the fur’s on the inside,” he suggested as he cut the pieces for her carefully, including two long, rectangular pieces for the parts that would cover his legs to his knees, then another pair for her when she offered up one of her shoes.

                “Oh, good idea!” she exclaimed as she continued to sharpen her awl, pleased with how well it was coming along. _Not bad for a beginner!_ “Gods, we’re going to be sweating in all this fur,” Usa giggled, handing over the awl and the sandpaper when Trunks offered to take a turn, her laugh dying on her lips when he quickly and effortlessly used his superior strength to finish the job in seconds. “Show off.”

                “Sorry, Usa, I wasn’t trying to show you up or anything, I was just trying to help. Here, I’ll cut you some strips, then give me a pair of your pants and one of your shirts so I can cut you some more pieces.” Trunks returned the awl then and got to work, pleased that Usagi was having little to no trouble in punching holes in the fur, and genuinely warmed when he noticed that she was making his boots first even though her shoes were in worse shape than his standard issue combat boots.

                _Isn’t that thoughtful of your mate?_ His beast teased. _She’s taking care of you._

“Usa, what did you want to ask me back at the ship?” Trunks inquired in favor of ignoring his beast’s trolling.

                “Oh. Well… you said you wouldn’t be offended, right?” She asked softly as she continued to make holes in the fur, continuing once he’d nodded. “It’s just that my Senshi… they made you Saiyans out to be completely different from us. They basically built you all up as monsters. You and your father in particular.”

                “I’m nothing like my father,” Trunks said as calmly as possible. He’d promised not to be offended, and her statements had been quiet and respectful. And they were at war, so how could he possibly justify getting offended, especially when very similar rumors were believed about her people by his. “We were told that you Lunarians are frigid and heartless. I knew within a few hours of meeting you that that wasn’t true.”

                “Same,” she answered with a tiny smile. “You’re definitely not anything like they said you were. You’re not a crazy monster… you’re just a person. A person that shot me down,” she added dryly, fighting for a straight face, only to fail miserably when he frowned, her laughter filling the roofless house. “I’m just teasing, Trunks!”

                “Teasing?” He growled as he leaned forward and snagged her ankle to drag her to him. “Well, princess, I’ll have you know that we Saiyans react _very_ badly to teasing.” He waited only a moment for her eyes to grow serious before he went right for her ribs and started to tickle, and when she shrieked in reaction he laughed in triumph.

                “OH GODS YOU **ARE** A MONSTER!” She half-screamed, half-laughed, her limbs flailing as she tried to escape him in vain.

                “Oh, I’m a monster, am I!?” He cackled as he effectively pinned her with his solid body and continued his assault until she had tears streaming down her face.

                “I swear I’ll get you back for this!” She laughed when he finally stopped.

                “Oh… you will, will you?” He asked with a devilish grin, wiggling his fingers threateningly over her sides, giving her every chance to take it back.

                Usagi wasn’t one to back down, though, and she tried her own hand at tickling him, only for Trunks to renew his attack on her sides, making her scream anew. “I SWEAR YOU’LL REGRET THIS, TRUNKS! IN THE NAME OF THE MOON I WILL PUNISH YOU! AAAAH! OH GODS, STOP!” She added when he dropped a hand to the back of her knee.

                The prince didn’t even flinch when a flailing elbow nailed him in the face, he only laughed harder, and when he couldn’t breathe anymore from the hilarity, he finally stopped and slumped down beside her. “Heh… punish me, my ass,” he finally snickered. “What’re you gonna use, sweetheart? A crystal that makes me drunk?”

                “Exactly,” she giggled as she rolled on top of him and glowed brightly, beaming down at him when he instantly sagged and his expression turned from smug to relaxed and slightly dopey. “Now you’re at my mercy, oh mighty Prince of the Saiyans,” she drawled out when he started purring loudly from the pure contentment and joy that came from her holy light.

                “Mmm… that I am, sweetheart,” he sighed as he just gazed up at her adoringly, even when she began to tickle his bare ribs.

                “Seriously?” She sputtered when he didn’t react, moving to his stomach and then his chest. “What the hell, Trunks!? You’re not ticklish!?”

                “Noooope,” he replied. “I’ve got two spots that are ticklish. One is _obvious_ , the other… good luck finding it.”

                That last part was spoken with a waggle of his eyebrows, and Usagi rolled her eyes and lightly punched his arm. “Don’t be a pervert. I’m not tickling the obvious spot.”

                _Tell her where you’re ticklish just so she’ll stay on top of us,_ his beast suggested mildly, just as happy and relaxed by her light as his sentient counterpart was as he gave Trunks a series of mental images involving her loving them slowly, her hips rolling lazily against theirs as she used them for her pleasure.

                _Oh, enough of that,_ Trunks muttered good-naturedly as he smirked up at the moon princess. “Not that I mind having a beautiful woman straddling me…” He grinned when she squeaked at that and immediately slid off of him, her face a lovely shade of red, and as he sat up he tipped her a wink and handed her back her awl and the fur she’d been working on. “What, you’re allowed to tease me but I can’t tease you, moon goddess?”

                “Oh… you were teasing!” She laughed. “Gods, I envy your acting abilities, Trunks! Mina says that I can’t do that well because I suck at lying.”

                “That’s actually not a bad thing, Usa,” he assured her as he disregarded his beast’s urgings to confess that he’d been very sincere about enjoying her on top of him. “Anyways, sit tight, I’m going to go get our roof. You might want to get some candles handy until I get the railings up on top of the roof; I know you’d be uncomfortable sitting up there without it being hemmed in some, so I’ll get that done before we eat lunch.”

                “My stomach agrees with you,” she replied warmly, nodding towards the sky before going back to her project. Usagi was finally threading a long strip of fur through the holes to attach her first sole to a bootleg when everything suddenly went dark, and she snorted and rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. “Thanks for the warning, Trunks!”

                “Welcome!” She heard through the solid wood, followed by a curse in Saiyan that didn’t sound too happy. “Usa,” he whined, “I forgot the saw!”

                “Dumbass!” She laughed. “Just punch a hole in the ceiling where you’re going to cut and I’ll hand it up!” She couldn’t help but continue to laugh when a fist came through the ceiling on the opposite side of the fireplace, letting in just enough light to see by, and Usagi quickly went to his waggling fingers. “Hi to you too, here you go!” She passed up the saw by holding it by the blunt end of the blade and standing on her tiptoes, then just as quickly danced back to avoid getting sawdust in her eyes when he began to work at what would be their escape hatch.

                “Just put it next to the fireplace and we’ll use it,” he instructed when the almost perfect square fell to the floor. “Damn,” he realized aloud, “I’m gonna have to cut enough firewood to get us for two months, at least. Going day to day’s a pain in the ass, especially deep into winter when most of the wood’s covered by snow.”

                “We’ll get enough for tonight and to cook dinner and breakfast with, sound good?” Usagi asked. “Then tomorrow we’ll go about getting enough.”

                “No, actually… I was planning on going out and trying to find anyone that might be looking for us,” he sighed. “I just didn’t want to leave you alone where something could hurt you.”

                Usagi didn’t want to be left alone, but common sense told her that this was something that they should have already done and something that needed to be done regularly, so she nodded, glad that it was dark enough inside of the house for him to miss the deep worry in her eyes. “Any clue how you’re going to find your way back?” She asked softly.

                Trunks sighed yet again as he dropped down into the house. “Yeah, my beast actually has one, but…”

                “I’m not going to like it,” she guessed.    

                “I can nick your shoulder with my teeth,” he offered, holding up his hands in front of him for silence when her eyes widened and her mouth opened in protest. “It’s not a mating mark, I swear it! Trust me, princess, I do _not_ want to be mated to you. You’re my friend now, yes, and I like you just fine, but mating? No. No offense or anything,” he added quickly.

                “None taken,” Usagi muttered as she drew a few candles out and sat down once more, lighting one with a battery and a gum wrapper and the others from the first, her gaze on the floor as she contemplated the strange, unexpected sensation of disappointment in her belly. Did… did she actually _want_ him to…? Phhht, no, of course not! That was just silly! “So… if it’s not a mating mark, what is it?”

                “Sometimes in the heat of the moment when a Saiyan is trying very hard not to bite someone they’re having sex with, a near-bite of sorts occurs, where the teeth just barely nick the skin and draw blood,” he began as he took a seat directly in front of her. “A bond forms, but it’s not even a half-bond. Both parties can sense each other’s emotions but can’t read each other’s thoughts… and more importantly, they can find each other anywhere.”

                “Trunks, I don’t know about this,” Usagi sighed as she set the sewing to the side that she’d only just picked up and gave him her full attention. “I mean… what if you accidentally do like… a full mark thingy?”

                “It won’t happen, I swear it, but for the sake of argument, one person being bitten is only a courtship mark. It can heal and vanish if it’s not refreshed.” Trunks briefly considered leaving it at that, but felt a wave of guilt at the thought of not telling her the whole truth and continued. “Not refreshing it would take a massive amount of willpower on both our parts, though,” he admitted. “We’d both crave each other like a drug, and we’d both likely go a little crazy with wanting each other.”

                He meant sex, she didn’t even have to ask; it was obvious by the faint blush staining his cheeks. “We won’t go crazy over a partial bite, though?”

                “We’ll both need close contact and we’ll run a slight risk of crossing a line, but it’s slim. I promise you right now that I won’t let that happen, Usagi.”

                “But if it _does_ ,” she reiterated.

                “Fine… if it does, we’ll likely wind up being mated within a month, and kiss your betrothal to Prince What’s-His-Face goodbye. But like I said, I won’t let it.” Trunks paused then and studied her seriously, his fingers tipping her chin up when she looked at the floor. “Usagi. I really need you to trust me. Ok? Have a little faith in me.”

                “I…” Nervously licking her lips, Usagi grasped the shoulder of her top and pulled it to the side, baring her pale shoulder as her blue eyes pleaded and begged him not to screw it up and bind them for life. “I trust you, Trunks. Oh, and his name is Endymion, by the way,” she added dryly. “I thought you knew the names of your enemies, oh Great Prince.”

                “He wasn’t worth memorizing,” Trunks chuckled. “You ladies are tough as nails, but I’m afraid your little prince isn’t really all that formidable, Usa. Oh, don’t get pissed at me,” he added as he slid forward on his knees until they were pressing lightly to one another. “You know it’s true, and the way I worded it was hella fucking tactful for a Saiyan, don’t you think?”

                He had a point, and Usagi just decided to let it go and she nodded and sighed before pointing at her shoulder. “Whatever you say, let’s just do this, alright?”

                “Don’t move,” Trunks advised, suddenly feeling just as nervous and unsure about his plan as she was, “like… at all. Don’t even flinch, ok?”

                Usagi nodded, her heart pounding as he pulled her tightly to him and ran his hands soothingly up and down her back. A very unexpected tingle of pleasure ran through her when she felt him kiss her shoulder, but she stayed quiet and remained still. But then she felt a soft, tender nuzzle, followed by another kiss, and she gasped and looked up at him questioningly. “Trunks, what are you doing?”

                “Just… just relax,” he replied simply, his voice trembling as he nuzzled her once more, his purr starting up loudly despite his efforts to squash it. “My beast is just climbing the walls a little bit, so I’m doing this to soothe him.” He nearly fell over when he immediately felt her light filling him in response, and even though he felt dopey and relaxed, he couldn’t help but grin down at her. “I swear to Dra, you’re the cleverest woman I’ve ever met outside of my mother,” he chuckled. “Good thinking, sweetheart.”

                “Thank you, and you’re quite welcome,” Usa giggled. “Now do the partial mark thing.”

                “Mmm, anything you want,” he murmured, already bending his head to her shoulder and baring his teeth, closing them over the creamy flesh and tightening them slowly.

                Usagi could feel him fighting for air and clutching her even harder to his chest suddenly, and when he let out a primal growl despite the fact that her light was filling him, she worried for what would happen. “Please, Trunks, you promised me,” she whispered in his ear, trying her best to block out the waves of pleasure running through her steadily while his teeth were clamped to her shoulder. “You swore it wouldn’t happen, Trunks, please don’t break your promise.”

                The Saiyan prince fractionally tightened his jaw in response, fighting his beast hard to keep himself from fully marking her, and the moment he felt a canine pierce her skin and she whimpered into his collarbone, he froze.

                **_I WANT HER!_** His beast roared at him, fighting tooth and nail for full control, only for Usagi’s light to block him at every turn.

                _We promised,_ Trunks reminded him beast as calmly as he was able. _If she’s really our mate and you want her so badly, why would you be willing to break a vow you made to her? Would you really have me start a relationship with_ anyone _like that? Phht… and_ you’re _supposed to be_ my _moral compass,_ he added sarcastically, _so stop being a dick._

                To his undying surprise, his beast actually apologized and backed off, leaving Trunks in full control so that he could remove his mouth from her shoulder. “Done,” he whispered, his voice trembling, emitting a sigh as he rested his forehead against hers. “You ok, sweetheart?”

                “Y—Yeah… I’m ok. Just… wow. Holy crap, Trunks… that felt so good. I almost didn’t want you to stop,” she breathed out. “Is… is that normal?”

                “Yeah, it’s normal, don’t worry.” It was then that he realized how close their mouths were, and while he was overcome with a strong urge to close the gap, Trunks somehow managed to resist and bent his head to her shoulder again to drag his tongue over the blood beginning to trail down her skin. He was quick about cleaning the mark because her light arousal was perfuming the air around him, and he could tell she was trying her hardest not to moan when she clutched at his back and panted for air. “There, done,” he finally said, surprised by how far his beast had backed off, remaining withdrawn and contrite about its behavior even while he was trying not to savor the delicious taste of her silver-edged blood. “You alright?”

                “Yeah… just… wow,” she managed, at a loss for words even as he tugged her shirt back into place and kissed her forehead, marveling at how only moments ago she’d wanted him to press his mouth to hers. _Gods… I would have happily given him my first kiss, too,_ she realized. _I wanted it so badly… I still do, too._ Usagi resisted though, her common sense prevailing for once, but she couldn’t help but enjoy the strange way she suddenly loved the feeling of being in his arms. Sure, she’d liked it before, but now… “I feel so warm, Trunks.”

                “That’s normal, too, Usa. Now come on, we should test this out before I go on my little trip around the world.” Her reaction surprised and worried him—tears were welling up in her eyes and she was suddenly clinging to him and shaking her head—and the only thing he could do was to purr and comfortingly run his fingers through her hair. He could feel strong, very real fear coming from her, and while the effects of the partial bond were throwing him for a loop and were making it hard to focus on anything else, he was confused by her terror. “Usagi, I’m not going away forever. Just a day. Maybe two.”

                “But… but what if—“

                “I’ll be able to tell if you need me, sweetheart,” he assured her, tipping her chin up to look her in the eye, forcing a smile for her benefit as he was overwhelmed with the urge to stay put. “Gods, I didn’t expect us to have this kind of reaction,” he admitted. “This was supposed to be so I could leave, but now I don’t want to let you out of my sight.”

                Sensing his annoyance and his dark amusement, Usagi actually giggled and wiped at her eyes. “Same. Damn, this is going to be interesting, isn’t it, Trunks? Come on, let’s practice, like you said. We’ll just have to deal with any problems as they come.”

##########################################

                Problems abounded within the first few minutes; Trunks and Usagi had gone outside and separated, but both of them were fighting the ridiculously strong urge to follow the trail in their heads to the other. It wasn’t as bad as it had been inside of the house, nor did it make Usagi want to cry, but she still found herself wanting nothing more than to be close to him.

                “This is crazy,” she thought aloud as she gathered some wood from the edge of the forest and added it to the pile she was making. “How in the heck do Saiyan mates ever go to war if they can’t be away from each other for five minutes!?”

                “They usually go together,” Trunks answered as he walked up and gathered the small pile into his arms, “and fully mated couples have an easier time of it because they can talk to each other through the bond. Half-mated couples are usually put on leave until they’re fully bonded.”

                Usagi was pleasantly surprised that the Saiyans showed couples so much consideration, but on the other hand, they didn’t really have a choice, did they? A distracted warrior wouldn’t be effective in battle, and from what she’d heard, their numbers were dwindling because of their war-mongering. So supporting mating in any way they could made sense—they needed people to make more babies who would eventually grow up into warriors. “Hey, what are you doing over here?” She giggled. “You’re supposed to be on the other side of the house!”

                “Just thought I’d help you, that’s all,” he said nonchalantly even though he cracked a sheepish smile. “Not like I wanted to come hang out with you, no, not at all.”

                “Dork,” she chuckled. “Get back to work on those _wer’kha_ pelts so I’ll have something to do while you’re gone!”

                “And what do I get?” He asked with a fake pout.

                “Boots,” she countered as she lifted a larger piece of wood and dumped it on the pile in his arms. “And maybe something nice if I have time.”

                “Oh, fine,” he replied, tipping her a wink before he took off with the wood so he could put it away and get back to work on the pelts she’d requested before he left in a couple days.

                A few hours later they met up again, and Usagi grinned upon seeing him freshly washed and changed into his clean fatigues, sunning himself next to the freshly cured furs and what looked to be… “Oh, Trunks, how thoughtful!” She exclaimed as she ran up and examined the ladder. It was fashioned out of long strips of fur and definitely looked sturdy enough to bear her weight, and the princess knelt next to him to hug him tightly. “Thank you so much, I’d wondered just what I was going to do if I needed to leave the house!”

                “I hemmed in most of the roof, too,” he informed her. “It’s not done yet, but I can finish it tomorrow before I leave. Come on, let’s test this thing out—I’m pretty sure my knots will hold since I made a second awl and tied them through holes on the side pieces, but I’ll feel better about you using it once I see you climbing it without a problem.”

                “Oh, sure!” Usagi waited at the bottom while he flew the ladder up and secured it at the top of the house, and once he’d flown back down to catch her just in case the ladder didn’t hold, she started her ascent, only to start shaking halfway up. “Trunks, this is really high!” She whined.

                “I know, but you told me you’re not coming down unless there’s an emergency anyway, right!?” He shouted from the bottom. “Come on, just another dozen feet and you’re there! You’re doing great!”

                That was the first time Usagi consciously used the partial bond, and as she tapped into his emotions for reassurance, she found herself calming as he responded to feeling her using the link and he pushed the feelings of bravery and courage through it. “I can do this,” she whispered as she exhaled and reached up for the next rung on the ladder, pulling herself up, keeping her arms and legs moving as she focused only on Trunks until she’d hefted herself up onto the deck.

                The prince was there in a moment, beaming down at her proudly and picking her up to swing her around. “You did great, sweetheart! I’m so proud of you!” Trunks realized what he was doing a moment too late and put her down quickly, ruffling his hair in embarrassment as his beast laughed at his outburst. “Er… sorry, I meant ‘good job,’ you know? Um… got carried away. The bond and all,” he explained quickly.

                “Oh, shuddup,” Usagi giggled before she used a sweeping hand to gesture to the porch railings. “And thank you for this, Trunks, I don’t feel scared to be up here anymore.”

                “You’re welcome,” he replied, softening at her genuine smile, feeling his embarrassment wash away at the feeling of her happiness in the back of his mind. “Come on, let’s eat something and I’ll make you a small ladder so you can get to the roof without any problems.”


	6. Chapter 6

Usagi noticed for the tenth time when Trunks subtly leaned against her as they both worked sitting side by side, their hands constantly in motion as she finished the first boot and he made holes in a piece of fur that he refused to tell her the purpose of, stating that it was a surprise. “You know I’m gonna figure it out by the time I see where you’re making the holes,” she giggled.

                “Well, then I guess I’ll just have to stop and finish it while I’m gone,” he countered smoothly, not even looking up from his project, at least not until she stopped moving and he felt her joy rolling through him. “Hm…? What are—oh! You finished one, great job, Usagi!”

                “Try it on!” She urged him. “I want to see if it fits!”

                Pushing aside the remnants of his supper, Trunks was more than happy to oblige and stuck his already bare foot in the fur boot, nodding in approval at the fit and the extremely comfortable feeling of fur on his skin. “Very nice, Usa! It feels great! I swear, I’m going to be the best-dressed Saiyan on this planet by the time you’re done with me!”

                Beyond pleased by his praise, the princess couldn’t stop smiling as she started right in on the second boot, determined for him to wear them before he left in two days. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you’re warm while you’re gone. I can probably finish this one before lunch tomorrow, and I’ll have you a shirt made by supper!”

                “You really need to make yourself some boots, too, Usa,” he reminded her, flattered by how she insisted on making his first even though her shoes were far worse off than his. He didn’t need the shirt as badly as she needed a coat, either; since he could warm himself with his ki, her clothing needed to be the priority, but she’d rebuffed every attempt he’d made at convincing her to take care of herself first… which was why he was making her a long skirt.

                He’d noticed that she hadn’t changed pants yet again, so he knew that she was running low on clean clothes. And since the other pair he’d seen her in was just as stained in _wer’kha_ blood and guts as his fatigues were, he thought he’d make her something that would keep her warm without impeding her movement. But since he couldn’t borrow the pattern he’d cut for her to make pants without giving himself away, he’d guessed at her waist size, went four inches wider, and had plans to run a fur drawstring through the snow white pelt he was using so that it would fit her right. _I hope she likes it as much as I like the boots she’s making me._

                _Isn’t it sweet? You’re already exchanging courting gifts with her._

                _Aw, shuddup,_ he rumbled right back at his beast, doing his best not to get defensive since it had a point. Fuck it though, he was making her this skirt, and then he was going to start in on her coat, since he knew without a doubt that she’d be too busy trying to make him something else before taking care of her own needs.

                Speaking of her needs… “Usagi, do you have anything that you can use as a weapon? You know, just in case you need one. I know you’re not going to go down to the ground, but I’d still feel better if I knew you could defend yourself.”

                “Actually, I have one of Rei’s bows in here,” she realized, fetching it from her subspace immediately to present him with a bow made of black Martian hardwood.

                Emitting an impressed whistle, Trunks took it carefully and admired the make of it, knowing from his battles with the Martians that their bows shot straight and true, and that even an amateur marksman shot better than his peers if he was using a Martian bow. “Well, I definitely don’t need to leave you my sword, then,” he chuckled as he handed it back. “And I’m surprised that Rei parted with that.”

                “I’m surprised she didn’t ask for it back, honestly,” Usagi murmured as she stared at it in confusion, recalling the day that Rei had been teaching her how to shoot because they were bored. “Setsuna was with us and I remember her telling me to store it so it wouldn’t get lost, that her and Rei needed to talk… and then Rei just never asked me for it back. She probably forgot about it, too, honestly; she has lots of bows.”

                “Arrows?” Trunks wondered.

                “Yeah, I had a couple of quivers full of them while we were practicing, and they were really expensive so I put them up, too,” she answered as she dug around and found them, setting them with the weapon.

                “Thank the gods for Setsuna,” the prince murmured as he picked up the small computer. “If not for her forgetfulness, we wouldn’t have had this, either. Here, I programmed it so the alarm will go off on the third morning. I should definitely be back by then, and if I’m not, I’ll be back really soon. It’s got a countdown and everything on there.”

                “Heh, I almost forgot,” Usagi giggled as she left that screen and went to the main calendar. “I found this last time and Setsuna’s got all our birthdays programmed in. I meant to add yours to it so she’ll make that disapproving face she’s famous for when I give it back and she finds it.”

                Trunks laughed at that and nodded; she’d told him about that face and how it was a joke even with her mother and her outer Senshi that Setsuna’s disapproving frown seemed to be her resting face. “Mom said that it’s November second on the Solarian calendar… huh, that’s next week,” he added with interest as he looked over her shoulder. “I didn’t realize my birthday was already creeping up, what with the war and the switching between planets. Gods, I’ll never get over the change in dates between worlds, it always confuses the hell out of me. For example, it’s something like September on Five, and it’s June twenty-second back home.”

                Usagi could only laugh at that and grin. “Well then, my birthday’s next week on Vegeta-sei. Looks like we’ll turn twenty together, Trunks. Mine’s on the thirtieth.”

                “Really? Mine too!” He exclaimed in surprise. “I mean, it’s really November on your planet, but on my homeworld it’s the same date as yours. That’s actually pretty cool, Usa.”

                “It is… in fact, when you get back, I’ll have a birthday present for you,” she decided. “I don’t know about you, but ever since the war started, we haven’t really made a huge deal about birthdays. The only one that we really celebrated was my eighteenth, and even when Mom gave me part of the crystal on my seventeenth, we only had cake afterwards.”

                “Shit, we don’t even get cake!” Trunks laughed. “Father just sort of slaps me on the back and tells me he’s surprised that I survived another year without him killing me!”

                Absorbed in the feeling of his mirth, Usagi couldn’t help but join in on the laughter. “Oh gods, Rei tells me the same thing!”

                “We really need to put those two in a room when we get back!”

                “Gods, I know, right!? We could get a couple chairs and some popcorn and watch the fireworks!”

                “Take bets on how long it’d be before they killed each other!” Trunks added, cackling at the mental image.

                Usagi was beyond words at that, she was roaring at the hilarity of it all and leaning against him, and by the time the ringing sound of her laughter died down she had the hiccups and they both had tears streaming down their faces. She wasn’t smiling anymore, though, she was wiping her eyes and looking up at him sadly. “I’m really going to miss you, Trunks.”

                Whether she meant when he took off for a couple days or when they were finally rescued, Trunks didn’t know, so he just sighed and nodded. “You too, Usa. Don’t worry, though… I’ll find you. Promise.”

                Whether he meant when he took off or when they were rescued, Usagi didn’t know, so she just leaned into him again and hugged him tightly. “And if you don’t find me, I’ll find you. I swear it.”

                Both of them were somber after that, but they continued to work by candlelight for a couple more hours since neither of them needed to be up super early in the morning. After all, they had a fireplace that seemed to be working just fine—Trunks had commented more than once about how surprised he was that it hadn’t been damaged and how lucky they were that it worked perfectly—a roof over their heads, warm furs to sleep in, and plenty of food. They were safe from the _wer’kha_ and any lesser predators that might bother them, so they knew that they could let their guards down and sleep deeply without worry.

When it came time for bed, Usagi did her business behind a sheet that Trunks had hung up for her, using a bucket from her subspace while the prince went up top to do the same over the railing, and he even went back up to dump her bucket over the side once he’d finished, giving her some privacy to change into a clean t-shirt and get under the covers.

“You know one thing I’ll enjoy while I’m gone?” He chuckled as he took off his fatigues behind the curtain and put on the sweats she’d cleaned for him in the lake after they’d eaten lunch.

“You’ll get to sleep naked,” Usagi guessed knowingly. “And guess what? So will I. I don’t normally do that, but I’ll admit that I’ve been dying to slide around naked under all this soft fur.”

The thought of her sleeping naked brought his beast to the surface, but Trunks wasn’t sure if it was his primal side or the partial bond that made him speak as he imagined what she’d feel like against him, with no clothes to separate either of them from the other. “Usa, all joking aside, you’re the only one bothered by nudity. There’s no nudity taboo among my people, none at all, so if you feel inclined to sleep naked, you go right ahead.”

“Nah, but thanks,” she replied shyly as he came back around the curtain and slid into bed with her. “If I did, there’s not a chance in hell that I’d let you snuggle me, and I honestly enjoy it too much to give it up in exchange for rolling around naked in fur.”

Trunks couldn’t help but puff up with pride over the fact that she enjoyed sleeping against him even more than the soft, luxuriously thick _wer’kha_ pelt against her skin, and he responded by snagging her with his tail and dragging her to him. He grinned when she giggled and immediately wrapped her arms and legs around him, quickly getting comfortable and burying her face in his chest, lifting her head for the pillow when he drug it over as well.

Sharing sleeping space was completely different now that he’d partially marked her; there wasn’t even a debate about cuddling or any attempts to sleep on opposite sides of the bed. To even suggest attempting such a thing would have made them both laugh since they’d craved each other’s touch all day and had both been secretly waiting for the moment when they could get as close as physically possible without the other getting upset about it.

Even Trunks, with all his resistance and fighting of the inevitable, sighed in contentment and didn’t hold back his purr when he buried his nose in her hair, his hands wandering her back as hers did the same. He felt her grin against him just as he sensed her happiness through the partial bond, and when she used a little of her light he chuckled and sagged in surrender. “Mmm… better than any sleeping pill, sweetheart.”

A kiss to his chest surprised him, but Trunks decided not to comment and only returned it to the skin pressing against his cheek, smiling wryly when she giggled at the feeling of his lips on her throat. “ _En m’kor_ , Usa _m’yo_.”

She couldn’t understand his words, but she was fairly sure he’d said goodnight, so she just went with it, unaware of how he was mentally berating himself for using a possessive term on her. “Night, Trunks.”

######################################

Waking up tangled up in each other was a lot different than it had been the previous mornings, and Trunks was actually blushing at how hard he was beneath the covers and the level of temptation he felt to simply press his lips to hers and wake her with a morning seduction.

 _No, we should wait until she’s awake for that,_ his beast chuckled. _We love a challenge._

Usagi woke to Trunks fighting his instincts, too, stirring against him as he nuzzled her throat and even nipped at it. “Mmm… Trunks… what’re ya doin’?” She murmured, reflecting that whatever he was doing, it felt wonderful.

“Fuckin’ bond,” he mumbled sleepily, letting out a soft, possessive growl that mixed in with his purr. “My beast is bein’ an asshole.”

Usagi giggled not only at that and the fact that she found Trunks’ annoyed tone to be absolutely adorable, but at the way his face was tickling her every time he nuzzled her throat and shoulder or nipped at her. “You need a shave, Trunks… it seems you grew a full beard overnight.”

“Hm?” A small compact in his hand made him roll a bit, keeping her tucked tightly to him, and when Trunks looked inside he found that the stubble he’d developed over the last few days had finally erupted into what was officially a short beard and mustache. “Damn it… and I’ll shred my face trying to shave with a knife, too… guess I could use my ki like Father does.”

“I dunno, Grizzly Adams, I think it looks kinda cute on you,” Usagi chuckled, still half asleep, her hand tracing his face and the quarter-inch lavender hairs coating it. “You could let it get long like your hair, maybe let me braid some little beads into it and AAAAAH! OH GODS STOP TICKLING ME!” She shrieked, flailing beneath the covers. “COME ON, PINK BEADS AND SOME BOWS WOULD LOOK CUTE— OH SHIT NOT THE KNEES! PLEASE NOT THE KNEES!”

The moon princess panted for air when he suddenly stopped, pinning her beneath the furs, his body resting on top of hers, and when she cracked open her eyes she found his eyes dilated and half-closed… and his lips precariously close to hers. “T—Trunks…?” She whispered, her smile fading as he only continued to breathe heavily, his warm breath ghosting over her mouth. “Trunks… are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I?” She asked in an attempt to snap him out of it, half-wondering if he was fighting the urge to kiss her and wishing that she could find the courage to lean up and close the mere inch between them.

He shifted slightly then, and Usagi’s eyes popped as she felt him pressing to her bare inner thigh, long, thick and hard, but just as she thought he was about to finally kiss her, his eyes slipped shut and he drew back. “Sorry,” he breathed, “I… the bond… I didn’t mean to…”

“Trunks, it’s ok,” she assured him softly. “No harm done. Are… are you going to be alright?”

“Yeah, I just… sorry,” he repeated shakily as he finally cracked his eyes open and his fingers tenderly stroked her cheek. “Sorry if I scared you. It’s just the bond, that’s all.”

Oh… so he didn’t actually want her, then. It was just the effects of the partial bond trying to draw them closer, trying to tempt them into completing it—it wasn’t actually what Trunks himself wanted. Usagi was surprised by the disappointment that she felt in reaction to that knowledge, but she hid it well and managed a shy smile for his benefit, secretly wondering what in the hell was wrong with her. Did she want him or something? Was she falling in love with him, maybe? Or was it just the bond effecting her like it was effecting him? “You didn’t scare me, Trunks. It’s alright. Though… I think you need to pee,” she added with a giggle, her face heating up at the feeling of the hot, soft skin wrapped around hard steel.

He was still pressing intimately to her inner thigh, and Trunks only noticed it as well, his cheeks as red as hers when he promptly rolled off of her. “Shit, Usagi, I’m sorry! Why didn’t you say something sooner!?”

“I only just realized it,” she replied, shrugging and quickly shutting her eyes, but not before she got an eyeful that made her feel inexplicably warm from head to toe. So, _that’s_ what a naked man looked like… holy crap, Mina hadn’t been kidding about the sight being arousing!

“You’re telling me that you only just noticed _this_ against your leg?” Trunks laughed in embarrassment. “Damn, sweetheart, are you calling me small!?”

“I don’t know… are you?”

“Oh. You’ve never seen a man before,” he guessed, feeling strangely happy about that. Sure, he wasn’t a virgin, but he was about as close as any Saiyan got. He’d been through three burnings since he’d turned fifteen and a skilled whore had taken care of him at Celes’s whorehouse back home, but other than that, he hadn’t been with a woman. Hell, there hadn’t been time—he wasn’t a prude like his father, but he was the leader of the Elite, and before that he’d been on the front lines of the fighting. War left little time for courtship or romance, even the Saiyan kind.

Her eyes were shut tight, too, her cheeks flaming red, and Trunks ignored his beast’s suggestions to go over and press against her once more to let her get a better feel of him, but he couldn’t resist the urge to tease her a bit. “Heh… do you want to look, little moon goddess? I’m Saiyan and shameless, so it’s not like I mind.”

Her mother had always said that her curiosity would one day be her downfall, but it was not just curiosity that opened her eyes—it was the feeling of his smug surety through the bond that she wouldn’t rise to the challenge, and it irked her enough to take the bait.

“Oh,” she gasped, exhaling in a rush at the sight of him bared and holding still for her inspection, his arms at his sides and his lips twitching up in a knowing smirk. “Um… very nice,” she managed as she wrenched her eyes away from his morning wood and let them travel over the rest of him, admiring the muscles rippling beneath his tanned, scarred flesh. Her blue eyes finally locked with his, and she found them smoldering as he simply watched her admiring him, his smirk having faded within moments to a hungry look. “You’re very beautiful, Trunks.”

The simple compliment stunned him enough that he stopped thinking of inviting her to touch him as well, and the smug smirk was back as he turned towards the sheet and the chamber pot, giving her a nice view of his ass and his swishing tail. “Thanks, Usa. Some foreign women find the scars unsettling.”

“Actually… I like them,” she admitted shyly as she imagined trailing her fingertips over every single one of them while he told her how he got them. “There’s a story behind every one of them, and they show that you’ve managed to survive an awful lot. It gives you character.”

“Heh, how very Saiyan of you,” he chuckled behind the curtain as he did his business. “You got any scars?” He wondered as he came back around, grinning when she quickly shut her eyes out of habit and buried her red face in her pillow.

“I’ve got a few from the battles,” she told him, reaching back without opening her eyes to pull up the back of her shirt. “See? I’m actually kind of proud of that one, but don’t tell Rei—once Mom had healed me, Rei screamed at me for hours about throwing myself between her and a ki blast from Broly.”

“You survived a hit from Broly!?” Trunks exclaimed as he dove into the bed and quickly jerked her shirt up the rest of the way to admire the long, faint slash that crossed diagonally from her left ribcage to her right shoulder blade. “A glancing blow, but he definitely got you all the same,” he said in plain admiration, his fingers tracing the length of it back and forth, making her shiver with pleasure. “Bitchin’.”

“Did you see the one on my leg?” She asked, emboldened by his admiration. She had always thought her scars were ugly, but Trunks apparently thought that they were cool, and Usagi was beyond happy to have found a major common ground for the both of them. “Here, look,” she said as she rolled over and shucked the covers back, careful to bare only herself. “I got _that_ one from your father,” she giggled, “and he wasn’t too happy with me when I told him that he hit like a bitch.”

“Bullshit. No way you actually told him that,” Trunks snorted. “Unless… wait. Was that the battle on the far side of Uranus where he came home looking like someone had drug him through Hell and trampled him in the process?”

That was actually quite the accurate description, and Usagi giggled as she nodded. “Haruka wasn’t too happy about me getting hit and we ripped him a new one when he tried to come back for seconds. World Shaking combined with my moon wand,” she explained.

“You actually told him that… that he hit like a bitch?” Trunks choked out, recalling how unbelievably pissed off Vegeta had been for weeks after that particular fight.

“I know he’s your father, but I was mad at him!” She protested hotly. “Look, see!? He burned the hell out of my thigh, and a ton of scars aren’t exactly pretty on a woman!”

“Oh, shut up,” Trunks huffed as he brazenly raked his eyes over her, making no attempts to discreetly check her out. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life, Saiyan or otherwise. And Usagi… scars are very, _very_ sexy as far as I’m concerned. Like you said, they give character. They tell a story.”

“You think I’m sexy!?” She squeaked, her cheeks blazing hot and her eyes wide. No one had ever called her sexy before! Beautiful, yes, pretty, definitely. But _sexy_!?

“Don’t let it go to your head, princess. You’ll never be as sexy as I am,” he teased as he fished around under the covers and located his pants, turning from her to study them in confusion. “I don’t remember ever taking these off, either.”

“Huh… you’re right. You went to bed with them on,” Usagi confirmed, half glad and half disappointed that he was no longer focused on her with those hazy blue eyes.

 _You kicked them off in your sleep, dumbass. No, don’t you dare blame me, if I’d done it I would have owned up to it,_ his beast laughed.

“Oh. Heh… my beast says I did it in my sleep. Guess I got tired of wearing them.” He shrugged them on under the covers and buttoned them up, and when he was done he found Usagi’s pants for her and handed them over before going to start a fire, needing some space from her before he did or said something that would cross the line.

Trunks hadn’t meant to admit that he thought she was sexy, but it had flown out of his mouth unbidden. And she hadn’t reacted badly to it, either, if anything she’d been flattered… and maybe even interested? The way she’d looked him over earlier had definitely hinted at interest, and it only made it even harder for him to resist her charms.

And the fact that she was starting to go into heat wasn’t going to help matters. Thank the gods he’d be leaving for a few days.

###########################################

“We should gather stuff before winter sets in. Just in case,” Trunks added when Usagi lifted a brow in surprise. “Don’t give me that look, Usa. I just… I’ve got a really bad feeling suddenly. Really, really bad.”

Usagi was quiet for a full minute before nodding, studying him silently as she thought. “You shouldn’t ignore a gut feeling like that, it’s usually accurate. I just… I don’t want to believe it, that’s all. I can’t help but hope that rescue will come, and soon.”

“I know, I do, too. But… I got a really bad feeling a few minutes ago, Usagi. I think something happened that’s going to keep us from being rescued, and even my beast is uneasy. I feel an urgency to go ahead and go, like I’m needed somewhere, and at the same time I feel the urgency to make sure we’re well supplied,” he finished softly, deeply worried about the sinking feeling he’d felt in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

“Did you want to leave right now?” She asked softly. “If you feel like you need to, Trunks, then you should go. I can hole up a day early, so long as you’re back in two or three days.”

“I…” He contemplated the idea for a minute or two before slowly shaking his head. Not only did that not sit well with him, but her heat wasn’t strong yet and he wanted to wait so that the worst of it would synch up with the time he was gone. “The idea of leaving you early makes me feel even worse, so no. Let’s finish eating lunch, and then we’ll need bags from your subspace. We’re going to go into the woods and pick it clean of nuts and berries and store them away for later, and any herbs or vegetables we find, too.”

“Sounds good, but… what about the _wer’kha_?” She asked anxiously. “I thought we were going to stay out of their territory.”

“I’ll give them the _ox’ana_ I killed this morning for the leather. You still get your leather, they get some meat—we have plenty, anyway—and we get a free pass into the woods for the day. Hell, they’ll probably be better inclined to us in the future if we just start leaving them food once in a while, so I’ll try and do it once or twice a week since we’ll need the extra fur.”

“Just once or twice?” Usagi asked incredulously. “Trunks, they’re _huge_. That matriarch could easily eat that deer-thing you killed and four more just like it!”

“Yeah, but it’s the gesture that counts. They’re not dumb, you know that. They’ll see the gift for what it is—an attempt to make friends—and regular gifts will solidify the truce. We’ll be a lot less likely to find visitors beneath our treehouse in the spring, and they’ll just let us be when we’re in the forest, so long as we respect them,” Trunks explained. “They can be reasonable… at least that’s what I’ve heard from Saiyans that prefer to live alone in the wild.”

“We’ve witnessed it ourselves,” Usagi agreed. “They have a very strict code of honor that we don’t wholly understand, but it seems that if we follow their rules, they’ll coexist with us.” She pulled out a cloth bag then and handed it over, as well as a pink backpack for herself and nodded towards the trees. “That’s where they usually come from, right? Do we leave it there or further in?”

“Right there’s good.” He took the lead, smiling as he walked, enjoying the feeling of the fur boots that she’d finished only an hour ago. Trunks had made a huge deal out of them, too, much to her joy, exclaiming over how they were the best boots he’d ever owned and how he couldn’t wait to wear the shirt she was making him, either.

Usagi had worked hard on that afterwards and it was already halfway done, and Trunks was nearly finished with the skirt he was making her and would give it to her that night, as well as something special he’d made while her attention had been completely focused on his shirt.

“Right here,” Trunks said, stopping her with a hand on her shoulder and nodding towards the grass, waiting for her to pull the deer-like creature from her subspace before he called out in his native language.

“What’d you say?” Usagi asked softly once he’d finished and he’d pulled her back several feet, gesturing for her to get behind him.

“I said that we brought the matriarch a gift and a peace offering in exchange for safe passage in the forest, and that we were sorry for all the trouble between us since our arrival. That we’d never meant any disrespect towards her or her people and that we’d like to be friends,” Trunks explained.

“You barely said anything,” she giggled, “and you said all of that? Really?”

“The Saiyan language is pretty short and sweet,” Trunks replied. “You know a few words, but I’ll teach you more if you’d like. It’s not hard. Like… when the matriarch comes out, say ‘ _eh_ ’, it means hello.”

Speak of the devil, they heard the crunching of leaves just before the giant _wer’kha_ stepped out of the trees and dipped her head in greeting, then sniffed at their offering. “ _Eh_ ,” Usagi said softly, lifting her hand in greeting.

“Don’t bare your teeth when you smile,” Trunks said quickly, “showing your teeth’s considered an angry expression.”

“Oh. Um… _mah’ni_ ,” Usagi managed, proud that she’d remembered a word in his language as she tried again. “ _Eh_ ,” she repeated. “Um… _au en_?”

                Apparently her words had surprised the female, because she just blinked and stared at Usagi like she’d grown a second head, finally chuffing in what sounded like amusement. “ _Eh_ ,” the matriarch replied, the sound coming out like a cross between a throaty growl and a purr.

                “They can talk?” Usagi said brightly as she fought the urge to come out from behind Trunks to run over and start a conversation. “You didn’t tell me they could talk, Trunks, that’s so cool!”

                “I’d heard rumors, but… I honestly thought that they were bullshit,” the prince answered, dumbstruck by the newfound information. Maybe the _wer’kha_ weren’t just very smart animals… maybe they were actually sentient? “ _Au at’rot_?” He asked slowly.

                “ _G’in_.”

                “ _Tapa m’eh… au at’rot_ ,” Trunks muttered in total shock.

                Usagi was just as surprised, but surprise had never stopped her from trying to be friendly, and she beamed up at the matriarch, careful to not show her teeth as she pointed to herself. “ _M’eh Usagi. Au_?”

                The _wer’kha_ looked just as floored as Trunks did for a long moment, but she finally stepped forward and dipped her head to sniff at the golden hair, surprised when the little female didn’t draw back. No Saiyan or creature that had ever landed had once tried to introduce themselves to someone in her clan before, and even with her centuries of life experience, the matriarch wasn’t sure how to proceed. Were these little predators now considered allies? They came offering meat in exchange for passage into her territory, and that was simple enough to understand. That was also a first for her when dealing with their kind, but now they were trying to converse? “She,” she finally growled out as she sat down, regarding the little yellow-haired female curiously. This one that called herself “golden warrior” was not Saiyan, and she smelled like a cool moonlit night and her mate. She also smelled like she was in season for mating, but she smelled untouched as well, still pure despite the fact that she was mated. “ _M’eh_ She.”

                “The matriarch’s name is She,” Trunks explained just in case Usagi hadn’t understood. “It means ‘ _the_ female.’ The queen, basically, though the word for queen is actually _ve’sh_ … holy shit, I still can’t believe that she can talk,” he finished in awe. Trunks was about to say something else, but the newly-dubbed ‘She’ was sniffing Usagi’s hair again, and then bumping her nose against the blonde’s shoulder, staring at Trunks knowingly.

                “What? What’s wrong?” Usa asked curiously. “Why does she look pissed?”

                “She’s not pissed,” Trunks explained, “she wants to know why I haven’t mated you.” Switching to Saiyan, Trunks gestured at the changing leaves and dared to step closer, moving slowly and deliberately as he dared to touch a large white patch in She’s fur, reflecting that he was probably the only Saiyan to ever touch a matriarch in the history of his people. “This will be a bad winter,” he said in his native language.

                “ _G’in_ ,” She agreed. “ _V’nu ed_.”

                “We didn’t think it was wise to risk pregnancy when such a bad winter is coming. We’ll wait for spring if we can resist the urge,” he explained carefully as his beast rolled its eyes at him in annoyance, even though it kept silent.

                “He put a little mark on me,” Usagi offered, smiling as she pulled her top to the side to bare it, sensing Trunks’s nervousness through the partial bond, wishing she could understand his words in Saiyan. “See? It’s just a little one, but it’s there.”

                “ _Ho tor’sha_ ,” She agreed before turning her head to nudge Trunks’s shoulder, then looking to Usagi once more. “ _Osa Ge… r’et au f’ri tor’sha k’sha t’au_.”

                Trunks couldn’t hold back a laugh at that and shook his head. “Hahaha… she thinks your name is ‘golden warrior,’ Usagi.”

                “Oh. Hey, I kinda like that. What’d she ask me, though?”

                “She wanted to know why you didn’t bite me back,” he chuckled before switching to Saiyan to answer the question for her. “Saiyans don’t fully mark each other until we fully mate,” he explained. “Usagi will bite me then. In the spring.”

                That was sufficient explanation for She, and the _wer’kha_ grunted and dipped her head as she stood. The matriarch felt awkward—a rare emotion for her—conversing with the little warriors and wasn’t sure how to proceed, so she decided that she would go back to the clan and discuss this new development with the other females and her new mate. Her word was always final, but some input from her daughters and sisters would be welcome, and a leader was always a good leader if she took others’ opinions into consideration.

                “ _Osa Ge_ …”

                She had turned her head to Trunks and was regarding him silently, and the prince caught on quickly and nodded his head in respect. “ _M’eh_ Trunks.”

                “Trunks,” she repeated, the word coming out sounding rough and throaty. “ _Au n’ta,”_ she continued as she tipped her head towards the wood. “ _F’ai m’yo_. _Ed ra’dir, m’eh t’uh f’ai ih br’atu m’yo_.”

                “What’d she say?” Usagi asked once She had lifted the carcass they’d brought her and disappeared into the trees silently.

                “She asked us not to hunt in the forest, that with winter coming, she needs the meat for her children. With such a bad winter on the way—she confirmed that, too, it’s gonna be bad—her entire extended clan’s likely coming in from hundreds of miles around with meat to share before they all hibernate in one huge den,” Trunks explained as he picked up his bag and started towards the trees. “Come on, let’s hurry; she said we would be safe, but I’m pretty sure she only meant for the day. If we want to come back, we’ll need to bring her something else as an offering.”

                “But I thought we were friends, now,” Usagi said as she followed him, staying close behind him. “I mean, we had such a nice conversation with her, and something tells me she’s never bothered to speak to anyone outside her clan before.”

                “Friends?” Trunks chuckled. “Gods, no, that’d be cool as hell to be considered a friend, but that… that was more like a negotiation. We’re not allies or friends with them, but it doesn’t mean we can’t tolerate one another and coexist. She’s probably just as confused and surprised by our little meeting as we are, and she’ll need some time to decide what to do about us. She’ll probably go back to her clan and ask them what they think,” he finished as they broke into a clearing full of nut-bearing trees.

                “How do you know that?” Usagi asked in surprise.

                “Because it’s what I’d do,” Trunks answered simply. “Apparently they’re as sentient as we are, so the matriarch will likely do what we’d do. She’ll go and tell her people what just happened and ask their opinion.”

#########################################

                They’d managed quite the haul of nuts before it had started getting dark in the woods—six bags in all—and even two bags of berries that Trunks had assured her were safe to eat, and as they snuggled beneath the doubled-up fur, they both worried silently about the next day.

                Trunks would leave and search for any signs that rescue had arrived, and they would be apart for at least two days. “I’m going to miss you,” Usagi finally whispered as she gripped his back and gently tugged him closer. “Promise me you’ll come back.”

                He’d already vowed to, but Trunks knew that she just needed reassurance and he nodded into her hair, drawing in her scent and savoring the smell of her fertility, half-wishing that he could just give into the desire to roll on top of her, to kiss her and taste her, to hear her moaning with pleasure as he pushed inside of her. _I really want to mate her,_ he realized. _I don’t think it’s just because she’s in heat, either. I think I actually like her… a lot._ Maybe when he came back… no! No, what was he thinking!? Was he insane!? She was Lunarian, he was Saiyan, they couldn’t possibly—

                “Trunks?”

                “Yeah,” he sighed as his hold tightened on her and he nipped at her silky throat, purring despite himself. “I promise, sweetheart. I’ll come back to you. I marked you, so I’ll find you. In fact… do you want me to refresh it? I can if you want, if it’ll make you feel better about me leaving.”

                Her eyes were emotional and scared as she looked up at him, and Usagi’s fingers traced his face as he nodded. “Would you?” She whispered hopefully. “You don’t have to, Trunks, I’m just afraid that you won’t be able to find me, that the partial bond won’t be strong enough.”

                He didn’t answer, he was already pushing her tank top to the side and nuzzling the single puncture he’d left with his canine, his purr shifting to a hypnotic and seductive pattern as his beast vied for control and ground his hips into hers.

                Usagi nearly returned that sexual movement with one of her own, but she knew that it was just his beast coming out of him at the thought of marking her, so she tried her best to breathe, and when he began to kiss the tiny wound and he drug his tongue over it lazily, she dug her nails into his back and whimpered with pleasure. “Gods… Trunks, please… please just do it…”

                His only reply was something soft and possessive in Saiyan that she didn’t understand, and when his teeth joined in with his tongue and the tickling of the beard on her bare skin, Usagi thought she’d burn up right then and there if he didn’t refresh the mark soon. “Please,” she begged, beyond thought as the words simply tumbled from her mouth in a desperate plea, “I need you, Trunks.”

                That last phrase undid him, and all four canines pierced her shoulder before he managed to stop himself. He’d come just short of fully marking her and he knew it as he felt her emotions loud and clear, along with the barest whisper of her thoughts invading the very back of his mind. A little more… just a few more teeth… and they’d be halfway pairbonded. “Gods damn,” he breathed as he lapped at the blood trickling from the shallow punctures, his beast still riding high and in control as his hands slid to her hips and he ground into her once more.

                “Trunks, I… gods…” Usagi was beyond words as his mouth slowly trailed from her shoulder to her neck, and when he began to lavish it with slow open-mouthed kisses and she felt his fingers bunch in her hair, she lost the ability to speak. She could only feel, and in that moment she felt wonderful. She wanted more of that warmth, more of the sweet, simple pleasure that had her curling her toes, and most of all, she wanted to finally know what it was like to be kissed.

                She didn’t even have to tell him that, he could feel it through the partial bond, the thrumming need and desire filling her, and Trunks’s resistance crumbled when she shyly moved against him in reply to the previous motion of his hips.

                Usagi’s eyes cracked open when she suddenly felt his breath ghosting over her mouth, coming out in short, quick pants, his entire body trembling against hers as the hand in her hair tightened slightly and pulled her to him. “Trunks,” she sighed in surrender, offering no struggle to his silent demand that she come to him the rest of the way.

                The sweet, gentle melding of their mouths was everything she’d dreamed it would be, and Usagi let out a quiet moan just as he linked a leg with hers and began to rock in a lazy, purely sexual rhythm, a calloused hand slipping from her hip to the hem of her shirt.

                To her surprise, he didn’t try to remove her clothing, nor did his hand wander any further than her stomach when it crept under her top, but he did continue to kiss her even when he stilled his hips, his tongue flicking over her lips as he growled softly. Usagi opened to him instantly, gasping at the wonderful sensation of their tongues slowly mating, losing herself in the taste of him and the glorious feeling of her first kiss, hoping that he was enjoying it as much as she was.

                “We need to stop,” Trunks whispered after a few solid minutes of kissing, only for her to look up at him in confusion with hazy, aroused eyes, her fingertips trailing reverently over his scars. “Usagi… you’re my _friend_ , and what we’re feeling is just because I bit you. We should stop before we do something we’ll regret in the morning.”

                “But… but Trunks… I thought you…”

                The desire in those crystal blue eyes was joined by disappointment, and the prince could feel her sadness at what she was interpreting as rejection. She was too overwhelmed by her desire and the effects of the refreshed partial bond to think rationally, and when Trunks scented her tears in the air he groaned in frustration. “Usa, sweetheart… please listen to me. _Please_. You don’t want this, you really don’t.”

                “B—but…” His words made sense, but Usagi wanted more of the warmth that she’d felt while she’d been kissing him, more of the feeling of completion she’d experienced as they’d touched and explored one another over their clothes. Sure, they’d kept their hands in safe areas, but it had felt so right, so perfect… almost like it was destiny.

                A sweet kiss to her lips made her sigh happily, and her eyes slipped shut once more as she returned it, her hand cupping his jaw as she surrendered to the warmth again, but he was drawing back slowly and kissing the tip of her nose when she made a soft noise of protest. “Usagi… it’ll lead to sex.”

                Dear gods, it was so hard to keep a level head and resist the desire to take everything she could offer him when she was looking at him like that! “Please, Usagi, it’s just the mark. You don’t want to wind up fully mated to me, do you?”

                “I… I don’t know,” she whispered. “No?” She asked in confusion, fighting her way up through her heavy arousal so she could try and give him an intelligent response. “Trunks… could we maybe—“

                “No,” he chuckled as he fought the urge to kiss her again and lost, his soft laugh tickling her lips as much as his short beard was. “Kissing you is amazing, I’ll admit it,” he murmured as he pulled away again, “but if we keep it up much longer I won’t be able to stop.”

                “I… ok,” she agreed as she began to realize what was happening and her cheeks colored brightly. “It’s just… I’d never been kissed before,” Usa admitted shyly. “I liked it. I didn’t want to stop, yet.”

                “Same,” Trunks rumbled, tempted to kiss her yet again when she licked her lips and gazed up at him hopefully. “On both counts… Saiyans don’t kiss on the mouth, as I’m sure you’ve heard.”

                “No, I didn’t know that. You… you can kiss me again if you want to, Trunks.”

                “Gods… you have no earthly idea how tempting you are, _atti_ ,” he sighed as he mentally chided himself for using that word and ignored his beast, who was encouraging him to get another taste of temptation. Just a little one, that’s all it was asking for, but Trunks knew that a little taste would likely become a need for more… and more… until they were both naked beneath the furs and making love. “But no, ok? Just trust me, you’ll thank me for stopping in the morning. We’re friends, and I don’t want to take advantage of you.”

                “Trunks, you wouldn’t be—“

                “Yes, I _would_ ,” he pressed, cutting her off before she could come up with an argument that would destroy what little resistance he was grasping ahold of. “You trust me, right Usagi?” Her lack of hesitation when she nodded made him smile, and Trunks kissed the lightly glowing crescent on her forehead. “Then trust me right now and I’ll make you a deal; in the morning, if you still want me to kiss you some more, I will. But for now, let’s go to sleep and wait for the effects of the bite to fade a little. Alright?”

                He’d gotten through to her with that, he could tell, and when she nodded with only a hint of disappointment, Trunks cupped her cheek and pecked her on the lips. “And in the morning, when you’re embarrassed and you find yourself thinking that I didn’t want you, I want you to remember that I enjoyed every moment of this,” he added softly, surprising himself. “I just don’t think it’s a very wise idea, no matter how good you feel.”

                “You’re probably right,” Usagi sighed, suddenly weary as he looped his tail around her arm for the first time since they’d met—a huge sign of trust and deep affection—and they sagged into each other, both of them trying their best to completely ignore their mutual arousal. “You usually are. And Trunks…?”

                “Hm?”

                “Even if you’re right and I don’t want you to kiss me again in the morning… I’m really glad that I gave you my first one… and that you gave me yours,” she whispered shyly, pressing her lips to a scar on his chest as she hugged him.

                “I am too, sweetheart.”

#######################################

                “Was I wrong?” Trunks mumbled as he slowly woke to the feeling of a soft, feminine mouth pressing to his cheek.

                “Yes and no,” Usagi admitted, blushing hotly at the memory of how heated and wonderful his kisses had been after he’d renewed the partial mark. “I want to kiss you, yes, but… I realize that it’s likely the mark that’s making me want it.”

                “You mad about last night?” He wondered as he cracked his eyes open to find her red-faced and regarding him with that adorable shyness that he thought was cute.

                “No… I’m still glad that you were my first kiss,” she confirmed. “I really enjoyed it. Are you mad?”

                “I honestly don’t think I can get mad at you for anything anymore,” he confessed. “You’re too damn nice to piss me off.”

                That finally got a smile out of her, and Trunks was glad that she wasn’t upset about the night before, purring softly to comfort her has he sensed her anxiety over him leaving at dawn. “Come on, sweetheart, let’s get some breakfast, alright? Or… if you’d rather just get it over with, I can go now and eat while I fly.”

                “No,” Usa said quickly, wrapping her arms around him tightly and snuggling into him, her head resting against his chest. “Stay for breakfast. I’ll even cook while you pack some provisions. Alright?”

                “Whatever will make it easier for you, I’ll do it,” he told her before slipping out of the bed to go do his business behind the curtain. He listened to her rekindling the fire as he used the pot, and once he was done he came out to let her have her turn… only to stop and manage a smile at the sight before him.

                “Here,” Usagi said softly, standing just outside the curtain with his fur shirt in hand. “I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t get back to sleep right away… so I finished it. Try it on,” she urged him as she recalled the reason she’d woken; Trunks had been talking in his sleep in a mixture of Saiyan and Solarian, apologizing to his father over and over as he’d tossed and turned. And since his father was a subject that neither of them were comfortable discussing, she chose not to tell him what she’d heard. “It looks good on you,” she said softly once he’d pulled it on. “Is it warm?”

                “Very,” Trunks confirmed. “In fact, it’s a little too warm to wear inside out while I’m inside, I think. I’m already starting to sweat,” he chuckled before kissing her forehead. “But it’s perfect, Usagi. Thank you for thinking of me first when you need clothes more than I do. In fact,” he added as he moved back to the bed and lifted the blankets they used as a thin pallet, “here. This is for you, Usa. I wish it could have been boots, but… I noticed that you don’t have many pairs of pants that haven’t been ruined.”

                It took the princess a long moment to close her mouth when he presented her with what looked to be a long skirt, and Usagi couldn’t stop tears from welling up in her eyes as she took it from him to examine it more closely. “Trunks… you… you made this for me? I thought that you were making pants for you… but you made me a skirt instead…”

                She was in his arms and hugging him tightly before he could answer her, and Trunks just smiled and kissed the top of her head when she thanked him, a choked sob making her voice catch. “You’re very welcome, Usagi. If you promise not to cry anymore, I made you these, too.”

                “Oh… Trunks… they’re beautiful,” she whispered as she drew back to find him holding a pair of bone combs in his hand. “Where did you find the time to make these? I’ve never even seen you working on them.”

                They were simple enough, but even Trunks had to admit that he’d done a good job of them, and he couldn’t help but smile at how nice they looked on her as he pushed her thick hair out of her face and fixed them properly in the golden locks. “You never wondered why it takes me over an hour to bathe every day since you started making clothes? And why I never gave you back those two pieces of sandpaper?”

                Touched by such a thoughtful, useful gift, Usagi could only blush and shrug. “I just thought you wanted to be really clean,” she giggled. “Or that you were enjoying the quiet. I know I talk a lot.”

                “Yeah, but if that bothered me I’d just tell you to shut up,” he teased, stepping back to admire his handiwork. “You look gorgeous with your hair pulled back like that, Usa. And I’ll bet you’ll have an easier time without it in your face half the day. Try the skirt on, let me see that, too.”

                “Alright, hang on,” she said, feeling a little shy as she went behind the bathroom curtain and did her business, leaving her pants on the floor once she’d finished so she could pull on the skirt. It was much too big on her petite waist, but just before she called out that it didn’t fit, she noticed the drawstring he’d fashioned for her and smiled.

                He’d weighted both strings with a pair of _wer’kha_ teeth, and Usagi was touched by his attempt at making the skirt as pretty as it was functional. “Trunks, this is just beautiful,” she said as she tightened the drawstrings and admired the snow white fur, reflecting on how warm it was even with the fur on the outside.

                “Well, let me see for myself!” He encouraged her, having moved to the fire to flip the steaks she’d laid out on a piece of metal he’d easily fashioned into a makeshift skillet.

                Trunks wasn’t disappointed when she stepped out; his breath caught in his throat at the sight of her in the white fur skirt and a clean white shirt, and while he knew it would be a waste of resources, he decided right then that he’d make her boots with fur on the outside as well as the inside. He knew without a doubt that she belonged in white from head to toe, and he was going to make it happen. “Gods, Usa… I can only imagine how stunning you’ll be once I finish your boots and shirt.”

                She could only blush at that and shrug modestly, but when he twirled his finger in the air she obliged him by spinning slowly, her face hot at the look he was giving her when she came to face him once more. “Thank you, Trunks,” she murmured as she joined him beside the fire, sitting carefully, more mindful of the fur than she’d ever been of her silk dresses just because he’d made it for her with his bare hands. “Really, I can’t thank you enough for the skirt and the combs. They’re beautiful.”

                “You’re beautiful,” he blurted out before he could stop himself, inwardly cringing at how cheesy he sounded. She didn’t laugh at him, though, she only smiled and kissed his cheek, her lips lingering there a little longer than necessary. “Usa… the bond…”

                “Yeah, me too,” she confessed in embarrassment, overwhelmed by the desire to kiss him in earnest. “I… um… sorry. I didn’t mean to. The partial bond’s not going to make us all hot for each other for the rest of our lives, is it? Shit, that sounded so awful!” She giggled. “Sorry, you know I didn’t mean it that way!”

                “Phhht… I see how it is. You’ve got a handsome prince making your clothes and cooking you steak, and you’ve got a problem with him having the hots for you. My heart’s broken!” He cried out, clasping his hands to his chest and dramatically flopping backwards onto the floor. “You’ve slain me with your icy rejection! Oh, my wounded soul! It cries out for your love!”

                Between peals of hysterical laughter, Usagi was tugging at his shirt, but when he theatrically acted out a death scene with his tongue hanging out and his eyes rolled back, she flopped on top of him and shook him hard. “Oh, my Romeo! You’ve left me no poison!” She fake cried, pulling a plastic sword from her subspace. “Oh, happy dagger, I suck at acting and can’t remember any of the lines, but I know I’m supposed to stab myself with you! May our parents think we ran off together when they find our bodies, I know it’ll make Mother roll her eyes and cuss a blue streak! And thus, I die!”

                The moment Trunks felt her sag on top of him and she gagged loudly, he couldn’t hold back his laughter, especially when he saw her making the same horrible face he’d just made. “Hahaha, we both suck so hard at this!” He howled.

                “At least we’re entertaining!” Usagi giggled as she sat up and put away the toy sword. “You should have seen it when we did Snow White and the Seven Dwarves a few years ago. I was nothing short of a disaster! When we get back, I’ll show you pictures—heeey, speaking of which!”

                Trunks sputtered and shook his head when she produced a camera from her subspace, holding his hands up in front of his face. “Nope! Nope nope nope! My hair’s a mess and I still need to figure out how to shave! Usa, I haven’t even brushed my teeth, yet!”

                “Oh, come on,” she whined. “You look amazing as always, Trunks! Tell you what, I’ll let you take a picture of me with this _and_ with my polaroid, and you can keep the second one as blackmail or something when we get rescued.”

                “It’s not blackmail when you look like Cha herself, come down from the moon to tempt unwary warriors!” He huffed, even though he was lowering his hands and sitting up so she could take her stupid picture.

                “You need to smile, Trunks,” Usagi goaded him. “Come on, give me that cute smile that probably makes all the ladies on Vegeta-sei melt—there we go, that’s the one I’m talking about,” she giggled as she looked at him through the viewfinder and snapped the photo. She stood then and produced her polaroid, and when he aimed it at her she gave him a soft smile and held still. “You want the digital camera, too?” She asked once the flash had gone off.

                “Nah, but we should take one together and give copies to our parents to piss them off after we’re rescued,” he chuckled.

                “Oh, that gives me a laundry list of horrible ideas, Trunks,” Usagi purred as she programmed her camera on a thirty second timer, then hurried over to sit in his lap. “We should kiss in one of these,” she continued. “Gods, I wish I could somehow email a photo of us kissing to Rei, she’d be so pissed off! Her head would likely explode when she saw it and—“

                She was cut off by his lips pressing to hers, his hand cupping her face to hold her still, and just before the flash went off, Usagi’s eyes slipped shut and she leaned into it, humming in approval as she felt that delicious warmth from last night filling her from head to toe. “I was half-joking,” she chuckled when he broke away and grinned down at her sheepishly, “but I’ll admit, that’s going in the front of the photo album when I show it to my Senshi.”

                Relieved that she hadn’t taken it as a come on and pressed for more—or gotten angry—Trunks just continued to grin as he looked down at the polaroid to find it fully developed, and when Usagi slid out of his lap he tucked it into the pocket Usagi had sewn on the skin side of his shirt. He wasn’t going to mate her, no… but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t treasure that photo of her after they were rescued, as well as the memories they’d already made on Five in only a week.

                _Part of me almost hopes that I don’t find anyone while I’m gone,_ he realized suddenly, feeling a pang of guilt at his own selfishness. He wanted more time with her, but once rescue came, they’d be separated, and that fact finally hit home for him, making him face the bitter truth. _I don’t want to be separated from her… I want her to stay with me._

“Trunks… you ok?” Usagi asked softly, sensing the odd mixture of sadness, anger and a touch of fear coming through the bond. Maybe he’d remembered the nightmare he’d had?

                “No, I… I was just thinking that I need to get going. Come on, sweetheart, we need to hurry up and eat. The sooner I leave, the sooner I can come back.”


	7. Chapter 7

Staring at the blackened wreckage of what remained of the space pod, Trunks wiped at the hot tears of frustration and anger that had leaked out onto his cheeks and screamed his rage out at the half moon that was rising in the distance.

Rescue had come.

                Rescue had come, but they weren’t going home.

                And judging by the marks on the space pod and the red-stained remnants of a body nearby, the _wer’kha_ had done this. “Maybe… maybe they sent more than one,” Trunks choked out as he went back to the body and studied it for anything he might recognize. There wasn’t a single thing about the remnants of the armor that Trunks could place, though, nor was there enough left of the Saiyan warrior to identify him from anything short of DNA testing.

                The body was incinerated with a ki blast once Trunks was positive that there was nothing there that he could use, and after an hour of hopeful searching, the blackened hull of the ship got the same treatment. “I’m sorry I couldn’t give you a proper funeral, but I have to keep searching,” he told the scorched earth where the warrior had laid. “At least what was left of you got burned, and I hope you can be happy with that. I hope you can make it to the gods. Go to Dra in peace, comrade.”

###################################

                Wiping at the tears on her face, Usagi wasn’t sure what had caused them, only that she’d dreamed that Trunks was more upset than she’d seen him since they’d met. He was angry and sad—maybe he’d found something? She couldn’t know for sure, though. Even with his thoughts whispering in the back of her head, the partial bond was too weak for her to hear them clearly; she caught the tone, but not the context.

                He wasn’t hurt, though, she could tell that much. The first night he’d been gone, Usagi had felt his pain when he’d accidentally burned his leg, followed by his annoyance and embarrassment, telling her that he’d probably tripped or something at his campsite and landed in the fire.

                She’d heal it as soon as she returned, and she’d sensed him smiling as she’d sent him a wave of teasing mirth through the bond as soon as she’d been sure he was fine, grinning when he returned it with one of his own.

                “I miss you, Trunks,” she whispered as his sorrow continued to fill her, and like the last time, she sent him her own emotions. Only this time, she sent him comfort and a new, gentle emotion that she couldn’t quite label yet, letting it fill her as she passed it on through the bond. “Come home if it’s too much for you, Trunks. Whatever’s wrong, I’m here to help you. Don’t forget that.”

########################################

                Filled with her soft, reassuring emotions, Trunks gratefully drew on Usagi’s strength as he turned towards the forest. He was hundreds of miles from her, on the other side of the planet, but he purred in reaction and reflected that it felt like she was right beside him, giving him a tight hug and a few encouraging words. “Thanks, sweetheart,” he whispered aloud and through the bond even though he knew better than to hope that she could actually hear his words.

                Much to his surprise, a reply came, and while he felt it more than heard it, it was clear enough.

_I’m here for you._

#######################################

                He’d heard her!

                Usagi was beaming happily as she felt his brief shock, and she laughed as she imagined his face, his blue eyes wide and his mouth hanging open as he tried to get a handle on what had just happened. “You can close your mouth, now, Trunks,” she giggled, unable to contain her joy at the knowledge that he’d heard her, even though he’d been indescribably distraught only minutes ago. “Now keep going,” she added through the bond, closing her eyes to concentrate. “Hurry… and come home like you promised.”

                She felt him smile hesitantly, followed by a wave of agreement, and then he was distracted like he had been since he’d left, focusing on his goal rather than her, and on the move once more.

                “Good… I’m glad I could be of some help in some way,” she sighed, missing him terribly again now that they weren’t focused on each other, bending over her project again to distract herself from his absence.

                Her project was her coat, and it was half finished since she’d thrown herself into working on it as diligently as possible until her fingers ached, taking breaks on it only to eat, drink and relieve herself. She’d hardly slept since Trunks had left, aching from the lack of his presence in a way she hadn’t anticipated. Sure, in a way he was there—just a touch away if she reached through the partial bond—but his physical absence left her feeling like there was a hole in her heart whenever she tried to lay down in their makeshift bed and get some sleep.

                She’d cried a bit that first night, but Usagi knew she’d never admit it to him, and while sleep had found her eventually with the aid of a few pills from her subspace, it had been fitful at best and she’d been up well before dawn, working on her coat by candlelight.

                The one thing she’d tried her hardest not to think about was how passionately he’d kissed her. Had it really been two nights ago!? It seemed like it had just happened whenever the memory popped into her thoughts—more often than she wanted to admit—and Usagi was filled with that inexplicable warmth whenever she thought of it, her heart racing and her breath quickening as she recalled with surprising clarity just how his lips had felt moving against hers and how his tongue had slowly and thoroughly plundered her mouth.

                “Is it wrong to want that again…?” She wondered softly, setting down her sewing and looking out across her seat on the roof at the colorful autumn leaves of the _wer’kha’s_ forest. “I know he doesn’t feel that way about me, but I think I’m starting to. I care about him… a lot. More than I ever did for Endymion. More than I have for any man I’ve ever known. I want him to kiss me again more than anything. And… I want more, I think,” she admitted, her cheeks coloring as she remembered his calloused fingers slipping beneath her shirt to stroke her.

                He hadn’t gone any higher, but she’d felt him restraining himself through the partial bond, had felt his desire to explore more of her and have her explore him in return.

                And it thrilled her and scared her at the same time, knowing that she’d wanted it, too. “I think I might have let him go all the way if he’d gone slow,” she whispered in a mixture of horror and want. “Gods… what would _that_ have felt like?” Usagi wondered, her eyes wide as she recalled the long, hard arousal she’d felt against her bare thigh and she tried to imagine just how in Selene’s name it would even fit inside of her.

                “Bet it’d hurt,” she mumbled. “A _lot_.”

                Minako had slyly commented more than once about how huge all Saiyan warriors were— _everywhere_ —and Trunks obviously wasn’t an exception to that rule as she remembered how he’d rocked his hips against her in that slow, delicious rhythm, giving her a preview of how he might move within her if they joined their bodies.

                That memory conjured up a picture in Usagi’s mind of both of them naked and entwined beneath the furs in the bed, and as she imagined how it might feel, she found herself growing hot all over, her heart pounding as if he’d just kissed her again. “I want him,” she breathed. “Oh gods, what would Momma say!?”

                “She’d kill him. Then me. Gods, she can never, ever know that I—“ She paused as she tried to think of a way to label how she felt for Trunks, her pulse racing as a result of her epiphany and how she imagined her mother would react to such a betrayal of her people. To fall for a Saiyan… it was simply unthinkable. Sure, they’d been allies before the war, friends, even… but ten years of wholesale slaughter had changed all of that, and Saiyan were absolutely reviled by the Lunarian people as a whole.

                “It’s… it’s just a passing crush,” she told herself, even though Usagi knew that she didn’t sound nearly as sure about it as she should. “Who wouldn’t wind up caring for someone when they’re the only company available for hundreds of millions of miles? Especially when it’s a beautiful, intelligent warrior that kisses like it’s the last thing he’ll ever do…”

                The moon princess found herself thinking of him again and how it might feel to press against him naked beneath the furs, and she physically shook herself to banish the fantasy, even though she would have liked nothing more than to imagine how he would sound as he moaned her name and gasped in pleasure at her touch. “Damn it, I’m getting as lecherous as Minako!” She cried out in embarrassment, hiding her red face in her hands as she thought of how her Senshi would react to their sweet, innocent princess having such indecent thoughts about a man.

                “Mina and Mako would probably give me pointers if he wasn’t Saiyan,” she giggled, picking up her sewing once more, laughing outright as she thought of what Ami and Rei would say at the sight of her sewing—and doing a decent job of it, too! “They’d probably both faint if they saw me doing something that would serve an actual purpose.”

                That got her back to work in earnest, and she couldn’t keep the smile off of her face as she made sure all of her seams were as perfect as possible and tight enough to keep out any snow or chilly air, especially as she added the second layer to the outside, using the white fur Trunks had cut for her so she’d be camouflaged during the winter.

                “Thoughtful man,” she sighed an hour later, taking a break to ease the cramping in her fingers and turning to the gift she was making him as a thank you for the combs in her hair. It wasn’t useful, but she hoped that he’d like it, even though it was only simple and decorative. “I should make some armbands to match,” she mused as she fished around for a bit of wire in her subspace and wound it around the base of the _wer’kha_ tooth, using the spaces she’d whittled in it to hold it securely to the wire before she began to carefully wind it around a long leather tie she’d made.

“There,” she said firmly in triumph when she finished, standing and going right to the ladder and down into the dark house to lay it on his pillow. “I hope he likes it as much as I like the combs… even if it doesn’t actually do anything useful.”

Usagi went back up top after that and got back to work, and by the time her hands were sore again, it was time to eat, so she depleted her infinite stash of sandwiches by two, and when she was done she looked back to her coat and sighed heavily. “I’m bored,” she realized. “I miss Trunks and I’m bored.”

A quick check through the bond informed her that he’d stopped to rest and that he was exhausted; she’d felt a strange, brief mixture of rage as she’d been sewing, but it was gone just as quickly as she’d felt it and it had been followed by satisfaction and calm, so she hadn’t prodded any further than that. Most likely he’d come across a predator and he’d dispatched it quickly, and she didn’t feel any pain from him, so she wasn’t worried. _Sleep well, Trunks, hope you’re sleeping better than I am,_ she thought, sighing as she surveyed the field and the woods beyond their treehouse, contemplating whether or not climbing down to bathe would be a wise idea.

“We really should have taken bathing into consideration,” she grumbled, positive that she could smell herself after two days without. “Screw it, I’m going down. If anything comes up on me, I’ll shoot it with Rei’s bow and pray I don’t smack myself in the face with the arrow.”

Usagi was decided and determined not to stink, so she made sure the area was clear before quickly and quietly descending, thinking of Trunks and remembering his strength flowing through her when the height started to scare her. She was on the ground soon enough, though, and smiling with pride at her accomplishment as she started off towards the lake. “I made it down the ladder all by myself, without any help at all. Not a bad day, all in all.”

The water in the lake was chilly from the temperature drop during the last two nights, so Usagi rushed through her bath, shivering once she was finally clean and back out on the grass, toweling off as fast as possible and throwing on a sweater and turning her fur skirt inside out for the added warmth. Her warmest socks came next, then her shoes, and even though her hair was still pretty wet, Usagi felt infinitely warmer as she shoved her towel, dirty clothes and her hair combs in her subspace and headed back towards what she was beginning to think of as ‘home.’

“Well, they say home is where the heart is,” she mused, immediately thinking of Trunks, blushing to her toes at the implications. “No no no, Trunks isn’t where my heart is!” She yelped quietly at herself, mortified by the thought, shaking her head vigorously in denial. “Gods, what is wrong with me!? We were mortal enemies a little over a week ago and now… gods,” she sighed wistfully, “now I want him to kiss the life out of me.”

A soft groan of frustrated confusion followed that statement, and Usagi stopped walking and felt for him through the bond to reassure herself that he was alright—and a little bit just because she wanted to feel his strong presence surrounding her for a moment. He was deep asleep so she backed off, and when she looked up and opened her eyes, she smiled broadly at the sight of one of those deer-like creatures that Trunks had killed a few days ago.

 _I bet She could use the meat_ , she thought as she slowly drew her bow and an arrow from her subspace, remaining calm as she notched it on the string and still as possible, just as Trunks had told her to when she’d watched him take down the first one.

These animals weren’t used to bipedal predators, so they didn’t spook like the deer back on the moon and Earth, and this one was no exception as it let her come within twenty feet, not even paying her any mind as it grazed. _The heart’s in the center,_ she reminded herself as she drew back the arrow and took aim, blocking out any thoughts about how beautiful it looked and how harmless it was.

She’d gotten misty eyed about the first one Trunks had killed, and while he’d understood her tears, he’d impressed upon her the importance of staying fed and warm over the winter and told her that as long as they wasted nothing, their kills were just part of the circle of life. _And we need more leather,_ she reminded herself just before loosing the arrow, praying to her grandmother, the huntress, that it would fly true and spare the deer-thing any unnecessary pain.

Just because she was going to skin it and eat it didn’t mean it should have to suffer.

Either Selene had been listening or Rei’s training had paid off, because the deer-thing jerked only once before falling over dead, and Usagi couldn’t help but letting loose a whooping cry of triumph. “What a shot!” She exclaimed as she rushed over to it and quickly stripped off her skirt, pulling on the blood-stained pants that she wore while she helped Trunks skin and cut meat. “Guess I’m gonna have to take another bath, but it’s totally worth it.”

Trunks would come home to find that she’d been busy and self-sufficient, and since he was Saiyan, he’d respect her even more and then maybe he’d—“Gods, stop thinking those things, Serenity Usagi!” She chastised herself as she skinned the dead animal, determinedly blocking out everything but the work in front of her, avoiding any thoughts about Trunks that would make her heart flutter and her body ache with desire.

It took her awhile to skin and clean the animal since she hadn’t had a ton of practice, but when it was done she felt justifiably proud of her accomplishment, extending a hand to put it in her subspace, only to stop short at the thought of Trunks’s necklace. “Well, I bet I could make myself something… I probably should since it’s my first kill, right?”

The antlers were the only thing that caught her eye, so Usagi took the extra time to saw them off and stashed them before doing the same to the _ox’ana_ , and once she was finished she headed towards the edge of the woods, hesitating only a moment before calling out to She.

“I have meat!” Usa hollered, dropping the gift there on the grass and taking a few steps back. “Um… uh… _f’ai_? She?”

Some crunching in the underbrush answered her after a minute of waiting, and Usagi smiling brightly up at the matriarch, waving excitedly. “I killed it myself!” She squealed, basking in her accomplishment. “See!? I did it! All by myself! No Trunks, no Senshi!”

Clearly, She didn’t comprehend her words, but her excitement and happiness was clear enough for a blind old _wer’kha_ to see it, and she chuffed in amusement at how Osa Ge’s bubbly demeanor reminded her of a young kit after it’s first—oh. “ _Osa Ge_. _F’ai t’au_.”

“My meat? No, no. I don’t need it, Trunks and I have more than enough!” She answered with a broad smile. “I just thought that your kids… um… _ih br’atu t’au_. For your children.” But She only shook her head once and settled down onto her back haunches, seeming to puzzle out how to communicate with the tiny yellow-haired female.

“ _Au_ … joo.” Another chuff, this time in frustration. “Jesh? Joo? _Au_?” A quick nod from the blonde assured her and She returned it. “Joo… eat. Eat meat. _En_ meat. One meat.”

“I don’t understand,” Usagi replied softly when She stopped speaking in that rough, growling voice and waited patiently. “One meat?”

“Jesh… joo no… kill?”

It took Usagi a moment of mulling it over, and finally she nodded again, fluffing her blood-stained hair in contemplation. “You mean my first kill? I never killed anything before and this is my first one?”

“Jesh,” the wer’kha sighed, clearly relieved to have finally been understood. “Firrssst. First. Jesh. First _en_ kill. _Ten_ kill,” she added, sweeping a deadly-looking paw out wide for emphasis.

“It’s important,” Usagi realized. “Oh. I get it. Well, damn…” she whispered, sad that She wouldn’t accept her gift. “You sure you don’t want any of it? I mean… I really don’t need the meat, She. I just needed the skin and I didn’t want to waste the _ox’ana_.”

Yet again, She didn’t really understand her words, but it was obvious that Osa Ge was sad over the rejection of her kill; she clearly didn’t get that someone’s first kill was a sacred thing to be cherished by one’s self and their family. Speaking of which… “ _R’es_ Trunks?”

“Oh… that way,” she answered as she homed in on his direction. “He’ll be back, um…” Pointing at the sun, Usagi made one circular motion with her arm, then paused and made another. “One, maybe two days.”

That was clear enough for the matriarch, but she couldn’t help but wonder just why an alpha male had left his mate unguarded for more than even an hour, especially when they were still obviously in the courting phase and Osa Ge was in heat. Trunks should have been glued to her hip, but he was away on a trip. “ _Hi shu… r’et_? No need meat, joo say, Osa Ge. _R’et_?”

“Hm… _tor… tor nu’ch_. I think I said that right? We want to go home. _P’ue. T’uh p’ue_ ,” she finished solidly, pointing towards the sky, only to take a step back when She bristled and let loose a noise that sounded a lot like a groan. “She? What’s wrong?”

“ _F’ri nu’ch_ ,” She huffed as she laid down on her stomach so that she was as close to eye level with Osa Ge as possible. Word travelled fast among her people, and a small clan had come in for the great hibernation only that morning, speaking of a strange circular house that a long-haired Saiyan warrior had come out of. They had killed the warrior, who had proven to be little challenge, then they had gutted his house in search of meat. They hadn’t found any, so they had eaten the warrior, taking care not to waste anything, and then had moved on to meet up with She’s clan before the first storm of the season blew in… and judging by their white coats, it would be within seven suns.

“No help?” Usagi asked softly. “What… what do you mean, no help? She… do you know something that we don’t?”

This tiny warrior was sharp, despite her unassuming appearance, and She nodded once. “ _T’ai nu’ch_. _F’ri nu’ch_.” Osa Ge seemed stunned, and She felt a tiny wave of guilt for being the bearer of news that could turn such a bright creature into so somber a being. “ _Mah’ni_ , Osa Ge.” The golden-haired female sat down hard at that and just stared, and at a loss for how to snap her out of it, She let out a combination between a growl and a purr to her mate in her native language. He’d been hiding in the trees just in case there was trouble, but he was quick to follow her order, and he took off back to the clan at a full run.

Usagi was still sitting there quietly, so shocked that she couldn’t even cry when a large bull _wer’kha_ broke out of the trees, studied her, and finally approached so close that she could feel his breath on her face. “What? You gonna eat me now or something?” She asked sullenly, looking up at a bull that was almost as big as the one She had killed.

He only snorted and dropped something from his teeth into her lap, and Usagi immediately felt tears welling up in her eyes at the sight of a blood-stained scouter.

Rescue had come.

Rescue had come, but they weren’t going home.

The bull was saying something to her, but there was a roaring in Usagi’s ears as tears poured down her face, and she couldn’t hear a thing he was saying because of the volume of the rage-filled sound.

It was only when something massive and furry bumped her forehead that the moon princess realized that the sound was coming out of her mouth—a full-throated roar of fury that sounded as if it was coming from Mako or Rei, rather than the petite golden-haired goddess of love and light. “WHY!?” She finally managed, looking up to find She’s face only inches from hers. “WHY DID THEY KILL HIM!? WE COULD HAVE GONE HOME, SHE! I WANT TO GO HOME! FUCK!”

Usa knew on some level that She wasn’t to blame, so she turned her anger on the bull, stalking up to him and shaking her fist in his face, blatantly ignoring the warning growl he gave her. “WHY DID THEY KILL HIM!? WHY!? _R’ET_!?”

“ _Ji’ta_ ,” She answered simply. “ _F’ai_.”

“Meat,” Usagi whimpered, visibly deflating as all the fight went out of her, sagging to her knees as more tears came. “You ate our rescue party… we could have gone _home_. She, don’t you understand!? We could have gone _home_!” She sobbed. “ _P’ue_ _m’yo_!”

Once more, She didn’t get all of the details, but the message was clear enough; Osa Ge wanted to go home, to wherever her and her mate had come from, and the Saiyan the outlying clan had killed was someone who could have taken her home. They hadn’t known and She had issued no order not to kill Saiyans, so there was no wrong done, but seeing the little golden female reduced to sounds of sorrowful mourning moved the matriarch in a way nothing else would. “ _Mah’ni_ , Osa Ge. _F’ri v’nu t’ai_ Saiyan _geu_. _M’eh j’ha_.”

She understood, and while she appreciated the promise on some small level, Usagi could only weep as she cradled the bloody scouter in her hands, proof that someone had come to rescue them, only to die before they even found her and Trunks.

Had that been the reason for Trunks’s anger and sadness only hours ago? Had he found the Saiyan warrior’s remains? Maybe the remains of his ship? She suddenly couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, and she hiccupped just before she felt her throat close, her hands gripping the grass beneath her as she tried to make sense of how badly their luck had suddenly soured.

She just wanted to go home, was that too much to ask!? But the atmosphere and the gravity didn’t allow for ki sensing, so they hadn’t picked up on rescue before the _wer’kha_ had disposed of him, and Trunks had informed her that even if they did get a transmitter working, it’d have to be hella strong for it to reach Vegeta-sei One because of the same bullshit that tampered with his ki reading abilities. Would they even send someone else to find them? Would they send someone to find the warrior that had come looking for them? Yes, surely they would, but how long would it be before they realized that he was even missing!? How long would it be before—

A shock of pain snapped her out of it, and Usagi sucked in a long, shaky breath, the black spots blooming in front of her eyes fading as she exhaled and pulled in a second gasp of air. That one came out as a sob, and she could only curl up in the grass and cry, a hand on her throbbing face and the other bunched in soft fur as she was engulfed in unexpected warmth and a booming, powerful purr. “Trunks,” she choked out at first, forgetting her surroundings as the purr soothed her ragged nerves in a way nothing else could. “I want Trunks.”

##################################

The strange light that had come from Osa Ge’s forehead had kept She from letting her mate dispose of the unconscious tiny female, and risking the annoyance of her clan, the matriarch lifted Osa Ge by the back of her second skin, using her teeth to gingerly carry her while her mate followed with the blonde’s sacred first kill.

_The mark on her forehead is strange. It reminds me of the moon above… perhaps she is a goddess? The elders speak of such things, but I’ll admit I’ve thought it was nonsense. And she did heal my last mate. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not saw it, but I did. This Osa Ge is different… special. It would be wrong to kill a special creature. There would be no honor in it._

She couldn’t climb, so after her mate had grudgingly followed her orders and left the _ox’ana_ at the foot of the ladder, She growled to show her displeasure with his attitude, then made a point of dismissing him before settling down beside the little goddess, curling up around her to shield her from the cool air.

Usagi finally stirred near dark, warm and comfortable and clean, and she could only seem to focus on the fact that her hands were no longer covered in the _ox’ana_ ’s blood, temporarily oblivious to the massive bulk of purring animal surrounding her. Then she felt a rough tongue in her hair and remembered what had happened, jolting wide awake in shock and looking around wildly, much to She’s amusement. “What happened?”

“ _Osa sh_ ,” She chuffed, nudging the mark on her forehead. “ _Au v’nu shi’or. Osa sh_.”

Golden… light? “Oh,” Usa whispered in understanding. In her rage and grief she’d produced a moonbeam, and the amount of displaced energy being used at once had made her faint. “Damn it…” Looking around a little more calmly, she realized where she was and blushed in mortification, reflecting that Trunks would flip out if he knew she’d come down the ladder, only to pass out and leave herself vulnerable to anything and everything that wanted to eat her for supper. “She, thank you. You didn’t have to protect me, but you did… and I appreciate it.”

“ _F’ri d’in m’eh, Osa Ge. Au he_. _M’eh f’ri t’ai he_.”

“What’s _he_?”

“Joo,” She answered simply before lifting her face to the moon above. “Joo _cha he_. Jesh?”

Goddess? Was that what She meant? Usagi knew that Cha was the Saiyans’ moon goddess, so maybe She thought that she was her? “I’m not Cha, but yes. I’m a goddess. _He_.”

Rather than wonder about her any further, She felt mild surprise about her own acceptance of Osa Ge’s claim and nodded sagely; the truth in her voice was undeniable, and the matriarch knew she’d have one hell of a story to tell the elders when she returned to the clan, where she would voice her disapproval of killing the little goddess and the Saiyan male she was mated to. Her cubs would listen, but the lesser matriarchs of the other clans that had arrived for the sleeping season would control their own clans. She could order them, yes, but that would cause unwanted tension between the clans, and tension was never a good thing when so many _wer’kha_ were present in one space.

“Osa Ge, joo no go,” She finally stated firmly, nodding towards the treehouse. “Trunks _ra’dir_ , joo go. Trunks no _p’ue_ … home? No home, no go. Jesh?” She asked in unsure, halting Solarian.

“You want me to stay home?” Usa asked slowly, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. “Wait for Trunks to come home before I go down the ladder again?”

“Jesh. Stay. No Trunks, joo stay home. No _n’ta_.”

“I guess you’re right,” Usagi sighed as she climbed out of the warm, comfortable bed of She’s fur, pausing at the dead _ox’ana_ for a moment. “You should take it, She. You didn’t have to keep me safe, but you did. Take it as a gift from a friend.”

Again with the _ox’ana_? This little goddess obviously didn’t understand the importance of her first kill, but unwilling to waste more time by arguing, She reached out with one giant paw and easily severed the animal in half with her razor sharp claws, pulling half of it to her. “ _M’yo_ ,” she said simply, then nodded towards the other half. “ _T’au_.”

“I suppose that’s fair enough,” Usagi chuckled, her lips twitching up in a smile despite the fact that her grief was returning to her. She picked up the scouter she’d been clutching when she’d passed out and sighed as she put it away, along with her half of the deer-thing she’d shot, and as she made her way up the ladder, she looked back down at She. “Thank you again. I know you said no thank yous, but I really am grateful, She. So thanks. And I’ll stay home.”

“ _En_.” She took her leave once Osa Ge was safely in her home, and the _wer’kha_ couldn’t help but chuff in amusement at how innocent and naïve the little goddess was. _At least she listened to me, which is more than I can say for my kits. So no, not so immature as them. Just innocent, like newborn kits. I just hope her mate doesn’t come hunting when he smells me all over her._

###########################################

Trunks _did_ smell She all over Usagi when he returned the next night, but he was honestly too exhausted to really care or even ask her about it, and even if he had been, he would have never had the heart to wake her to do so. His dirty clothes got tossed in a corner as he just watched her sleep, and while he ached to climb in next to her, he was courteous enough to fly to the lake and scrub before returning to her, clean and fresh, finally snuggling against her wearily.

“Trunks,” she sighed in her sleep, curling into him like it was the most natural thing in the universe before she sagged against him heavily, her sleep deepening considerably, the tension she was carrying unknowingly simply melting away.

Holding her after three days of being gone was doing the same thing to him, and the Saiyan prince didn’t even bother to check his purr as it rolled loudly throughout the room, his arms and tail winding around her tightly and his face burying itself in her golden hair. “I’ll never admit it when you’re awake,” he mumbled, “but I missed you more than I’ve ever missed anyone, Usa.”

“Mmm… Trunks,” she whispered in reply, pressing a sleepy kiss to his chest.

Afraid of waking her up when he knew she’d been sleeping as poorly as him, Trunks left it at that and kissed her forehead, closing his eyes and gratefully letting sleep take him, more relieved than he’d ever been in his life just to finally be back in her arms.

####################################

When Usagi woke, her internal senses told her that it was definitely way later than she’d meant to sleep, but the warmth surrounding her and the feeling of being held and safe made her not care a bit about oversleeping. It was only when she heard a purr that she opened her eyes, and as she gazed at Trunks’s sleeping face, her heart did a somersault and she immediately kissed him in her joy.

Before he’d dozed off, he’d thought that nothing would wake him before noon, but that did it and he let out a hum of approval at the feeling of her mouth on his bearded face, his hands gripping her and pulling her impossibly tighter to him.

The kiss was quick, and Usagi blushed as she drew back to find him smiling at her, still half-asleep, his hazy blue eyes barely even opened. “Sorry, I just… I missed you,” she explained nervously.

“S’ok,” he murmured in his mostly asleep state, lightly gripping her chin to hold her still and returning her kiss with one to her lips, his eyes slipping shut once more as he held it for several seconds and then buried his face in her hair again. “Missed you too, sweetheart… now go back to sleep, I’m still exhausted.”

Checking her computer, Usagi shook her head and climbed out of the bed to do her business and start breakfast, shaking Trunks awake once she was finished cooking. “Trunks, I know you’re tired, but it’s ten in the morning.”

“Shit, really?” He mumbled into his pillow. “Damn, I don’t think I’ve ever slept that long. Not since I was a baby, anyways. Heh… must’ve been your scent that did it to me,” he acknowledged as he sleepily rolled out of the bed, completely oblivious to Usagi’s expression of embarrassed shock and the fact that he was bare-assed naked as he made his way to the curtain and the pot.

When he returned, it was to a blushing Lunarian princess that was pointedly looking up at the ceiling while she held out his sweatpants, and it was only then that he realized what he’d just done. “Oh… oh shit, I’m **_so_** sorry!” He babbled out as he took the pants and hopped around trying to pull them on while he was still standing, his face coloring as brightly as hers. “Shit, shit, shit, why won’t they go on!”

Usagi was about to suggest sitting down when his hopping did it for him and he lost his balance, falling on his ass hard enough to shake the floor a little, and despite her initial efforts not to laugh, she was in hysterics within moments, sitting down on the bed from the force of her laughter. “Well… that was… **_GRACEFUL_**!” She howled, glancing over to find him still bare and scowling at her, his expression the same one he wore whenever he was about to tickle the shit out of her.

She didn’t care though, and didn’t care that he was still naked right in front of her, she was still laughing hysterically, and the image of him dancing around awkwardly while trying to pull his pants on too fast was burned into her mind for all time. To be fair, so was the image of him naked and hard from morning wood, but that sight wasn’t laughable in the least. Oh no, that one was something she’d definitely think about later when she was alone, and right then she was too busy laughing at his clumsy ass to even think about the fact that he was naked.

“Hahaha you gonna keep glaring at me, or are you gonna cover that thing up!” She continued to laugh when he only kept staring her down.

“I’m going to tickle you until you pee yourself, Serenity Usagi the Second,” he growled menacingly as he yanked his pants on quickly, his cheeks red in total mortification. Sure, he wasn’t nearly as arrogant as his father, but he still had his pride, and she was laughing at him when she should have at least asked if he was alright!

“Oh, please,” Usagi countered, still giggling, not even making an attempt to escape when he knelt over her and pinned her arms beside her head. “It’s not my fault! Hell, you just flashed me! You should be asking me if _I’m_ alright after subjecting my innocent virgin eyes to such vulgarity! I’m blind!” She cackled. “You blinded me with your man parts, Trunks!”

“Ok, I know I’m big, but I’m not so damned big that I poked your eyes out with it,” he snorted, fighting the urge to smile and losing badly. Her laughter was infectious, and when she belted out a fresh peal of it at his comment, he found himself chuckling along with her, releasing her wrists to settle down beside her and pull her close. “Damn it, I missed the sound of you laughing,” he admitted softly as he simply held her and enjoyed the closeness, his beast agreeing with him by purring softly. “My father would kill me for saying it, but I really did miss you, Usagi.”

The feeling was definitely mutual, and the moon princess smiled softly as she wrapped an arm around his waist, her smile dying as she recalled the events from two days ago. “Missed you too, Trunks. Come on, let’s get up and eat, and then I’ve got some really bad news for you.”

“Yeah… me, too.”


	8. Chapter 8

He’d tried to talk to her, had tried to joke with her some and make light of everything, but the only thing that seemed to take the raw edge out of Usagi’s tears was holding her. So Trunks held her tightly to assuage her hopeless grief, running his fingers through her hair, purring softly to her, even kissing her gently a handful of times just to feel her lips under his and remind her that she wasn’t alone.

                _I’ve got to stop fucking kissing her,_ he realized. Even though these little pecks on the lips were chaste, they would lead to the kind of kiss they’d shared before he’d left, and that would lead to him mating her.

                And he would _not_ mate her, no matter what, no matter how belligerent his beast got about it.

                Despite that, Trunks couldn’t stop himself from kissing her simply to comfort her, and he sighed when his beast tried to convince him that it would at least distract her for a little while. _Fine… you win for now,_ he muttered as he pressed his mouth to hers again and held the simple kiss long enough to get a reaction out of her other than crying. “It’s going to be ok, Usagi,” he whispered as he drew back at the sound of her gasp of pleasure. “Someone will come looking for him, and I’ll go out again in a few weeks to find whoever they send. We’ll be out of here before winter’s even settled in.”

                “But… but what if no one comes, Trunks? What if… what if you don’t find them, or they don’t find us?” Usagi sobbed. “We’ll be stuck here forever! We’ll never see our families again!”

                “We will,” Trunks insisted, kissing her forehead to avoid kissing her lips again. “And until then, we’ve got each other. At least we’re not alone, Usagi. I don’t know about you, but I’d go out of my mind with loneliness if I was by myself for so long. You’ve got me, don’t forget that. You’re always the one looking on the bright side of things, so please don’t turn me into the optimist out of the two of us. I suck at it,” he mumbled, hoping that teasing her would break her out of her funk. “And besides, I’m not that awful, am I? If you could be stuck with just me forever, would you really be that miserable?”

                “No,” she whimpered into his chest, her fingers flexing against his back as she hugged him tightly. “I like you a lot, Trunks, but I miss my sisters. I miss my mother,” she choked out as she started to cry again. “I just want to go home!”

                “I know, I know,” he soothed as gently as possible, wishing her could think of something—anything—to stop the waterworks as she continued to soak his bare chest in her tears. “Hey… you know what?” He asked after a few minutes. “You could just look at it differently, Usagi. Sure, you miss your sisters and your mother, and I miss my mother and grandfather and Goten, but if they rescue us, they’ll separate us. You know they will,” he added seriously when she looked up at him, her eyes bleary, puffy and red from sobbing for so long. “And I don’t know about you, but I’ll really miss _this_ a lot more than I miss them right now.”

                Usagi felt the truth in his words through the partial bond and fought down the urge to keep crying as he gave her a warm smile. “You’re not just saying that?” She asked weakly. “You’d actually miss me more than Goten?”

                “I won’t know for sure until it happens, but yeah, I think I will. I really like spending time with you, Usagi. You’re… different. And Lunarian. But you’ll never be my enemy again,” he answered softly, resisting the urge to tell her that he wanted her for more than just a friend. _Please stop it,_ he begged his beast when it tempted him to kiss her again, flashing images of them naked beneath the furs through his mind. _Please… please don’t. I care for her, yes, but I can’t mate her!_

 _Why not?_ His beast insisted hotly. _You just said it yourself, she’ll never be the enemy again, so who cares if she’s Lunarian!?_

 _Because… my father,_ Trunks confessed emotionally. _He’d kill us both and you know it. He’d never accept her as my mate and the future queen!_

“Trunks… are you alright?” His eyes had focused inward, telling her that he was probably talking to his beast, and Usagi cupped his face and kissed his bearded cheek when he didn’t answer her right away. “Trunks?”

                “I’m just worried about what will happen when rescue _does_ come,” he half-lied. “My father… he’s not a very kind man, and I’m afraid of his reaction when he finds out that we’ve become close. I won’t let him hurt you, though,” he promised as he kissed her, nearly giving in and surrendering to his instincts when she returned it and he felt her melting into him. “Damned bond,” he sighed as he parted from her. “Don’t worry, once it heals up I won’t be trying to violate you anymore.”

                “I don’t mind,” she said before she could stop herself, blushing hotly when he lifted an eyebrow and his expression shifted from tender to serious. “I mean… it’s _just_ kissing,” she hurriedly explained. “It’s not like we’re letting the bond get out of hand or anything. A little bit of kissing isn’t going to hurt anything, Trunks, and if it’ll help us deal with the stupid bond making us want to be closer all the time, I’m alright with it.”

                She had a point, and Trunks relaxed and nodded, kissing her again to prove that he agreed before he rolled out of the bed and grabbed her plate. “You need to finish eating, Usa,” he said as he brought it over and set it down in front of her, frowning as he recalled how she’d shoved it aside when he’d confirmed that what she’d felt through the bond had been his reaction to finding their rescue party dead. Usagi hadn’t cried right away, but she’d sat there silently as he’d recounted the tale, only giving him the scouter when he was finished.

                Trunks had been quiet as well while she’d told him about her meeting with the matriarch, his anger brimming on the surface as he distracted himself by trying to get the scouter to work while he listened to her. He hadn’t gotten the chance to start yelling at her, though, because the moment he’d told her that the scouter couldn’t transmit, she’d broken down into a heap of sobbing princess.

                Now that she wasn’t crying, though… “So, tell me? Are you crazy? Or did you just mean to lie to me when you said you wouldn’t leave unless it was an emergency?” He asked conversationally as he plopped down next to her with a second helping of breakfast.

                “Please don’t yell,” Usagi whimpered, fresh tears welling up in her eyes as she looked up at him, those orbs of crystal blue unmanning him, making him sigh and relent and purr in renewed comfort. “Thank you,” she breathed as she sagged into him and rested her head on his chest. “After everything that’s happened, I don’t think I could bear you being mad at me. I won’t leave the house the next time you go looking for rescue, not even if I start to smell like a foot.”

                “I’ll make you a hipbath or something out of some of the scrap metal, and I’ll make sure you have enough water for it before I leave,” Trunks promised in return. “I’m going to wait about a month or so before I go looking again, anyway. I left a sign written on the wreckage I found, telling them not to leave us here and giving our general location and what to look for from the air, so I’m hoping that they’ll find us before I have to go looking. Now… eat. Please. I can tell that you didn’t eat a lot while I was gone, Usa.”

                She really wasn’t hungry, but to placate him and show her gratitude for not being yelled at, Usagi took it and began to nibble at the cold steak, wishing they had some biscuits or something to go with it. “I really need to figure out a way to make bread of some kind,” she muttered.

                “We’ll go out and gather more nuts in a little bit and I’ll grind them for you into flour. Sound good?” Trunks offered. “They don’t make great bread, but it’s better than nothing and I remember watching Father make flatbread with nut flour the last two times I came here with him. Maybe if we add some berries to it or something it’ll be edible.”

                “I could figure out how to make jam, maybe?” Usagi asked thoughtfully. “I think I’ve got some sugar in my subspace from baking with Mako, but I don’t know… there it is. Yeah, not a ton, but enough to try making something with it.”

                Trunks watched the bag disappear into her subspace and just shrugged. “I’d rather you save the bag and just add the berries to the dough, maybe a little sugar to it as well. Making jam would just be a waste when we don’t have a ton of sugar on hand. We’re going to have to spread out any extra stuff we have, candles being one of them,” he murmured as he eyed the dozen or so candles spread out around them. “We can use the jars and make our own from fat and strips of cloth soaked in it, but I’m not a hundred percent sure how to do it. No, you eat, Usa, look it up later,” he added when she pulled out the little computer.

                The sight of it reminded him of something that had been on his mind for days, and Trunks chewed the inside of his cheek thoughtfully as he looked around the room and took in the bow, the computer and the remnants of sandwich wrappers in a bag in the corner. “Usagi… did it ever occur to you that Setsuna made sure you’d have everything you could ever need?” He asked slowly.

                “Well… yeah,” she answered with her mouth full. “We were at war and—“

                “And you really only ever asked about food,” Trunks reminded her. “You never once asked about a weapon, or a computer that has everything you would ever need to know in it, or tons of bandages or tools or— hey, where did the flower pots come from?” He asked suddenly, just noticing the three pots near the light that the fireplace cast.

                Usagi hesitated to answer, but when Trunks lifted his brows expectantly, she sputtered and shrugged. “I was gardening with Mako years ago and… well, Setsuna came to train with us and told me to put everything away so it wouldn’t get broken. So I did,” she finished with a mumble. “Potting soil, seeds and three pots.”

                “And what’s planted in them?”

                “…vegetables.”

                “Are you starting to see my point? She’s the goddess and guardian of time, right? Is there a chance that she foresaw all of this happening and wanted to make sure you had everything you ever needed?”

                Usagi had to admit that it was just too much meddling to be a coincidence, and she nodded slowly as she took a mental inventory of everything Setsuna had ever given her—every single thing was useful in some way and—“HEY! That means she knows where we are!” She exclaimed suddenly, jumping to her feet and looking around, expecting Pluto to show up at any moment. “PLUTO, I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! COME ON, ALREADY!”

                But nothing happened, and after a moment Usagi sat back down with tears in her eyes, looking at Trunks dejectedly. “Why… why would she just abandon us here? I don’t get it, Trunks. It has to be a coincidence, Puu would _never_ just leave me on an alien planet and let everyone think I’m dead, especially my mother. She just wouldn’t.”

                Trunks hated to see hope in her eyes only to watch it die so quickly, and he slung a companionable arm around her shoulders as he shrugged. “It could just be a coincidence, but I don’t think so. If she can see the future, maybe… maybe she saw something else. Maybe there’s a reason she would have left us here so long, Usagi.”

                “Like what?” She asked, sniffling into her steak as she took a bite.

                “I don’t know. Might be you would have died on Vegeta-sei during your visit or on the way back? Shit, I’m probably just collateral damage, to be honest. Or maybe I was meant to be here too?” He wondered softly as he laid back and stared at the plain brown ceiling he’d made out of a capsule house wall.

                “To protect me,” Usagi whispered. “To keep me from going crazy from loneliness and to protect me,” she added, her voice a little stronger. “I wouldn’t have been able to build a decent shelter, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to defend myself from the _wer’kha_ at first. Funny,” she chuckled, “I feel a lot better thinking that there might actually be a purpose to this, that there’s someone that knows where we’re at who’ll rescue us eventually.”

                “Yeah, makes me feel a little better, too, but it only raises more questions,” Trunks muttered in annoyance, his tail swishing beside him thoughtfully. “We’ve been here going on what? Two weeks, now? Maybe you were in a lot more danger than just the journey back from Vegeta-sei. But it only makes me wonder how _much_ longer we’ll be stuck here. If Setsuna’s behind all of this, will she really make us go through the worst winter this planet’s seen in decades? I saw the storm that’s coming,” he informed her softly, “and it’s going to be bad. We’ve got about a week before it hits, give or take a few days.”

                “How bad?” Usagi asked quietly, shivering at the thought of being stuck inside for an overly long period of time.

                “Bad. At least a dozen feet of snow. We’ve got just about everything we need, but we’re going to need more wood. I’ll handle that over the next few days. You can make sure all our clothes are clean before the storm hits, and we’ll store water in everything and anything possible so we can bathe and wash clothes if we’re snowed in for more than a couple days. If I’m guessing right, we’ll be holed up for at least a week. Maybe more,” he concluded worriedly. “How much soap we got left?” He added as an afterthought.

                “I’ve got seven and a half bottles of shampoo and a dozen different bodywashes. Mina and Rei like to give me smelly-good stuff as gifts,” she giggled when he seemed surprised. “It’s actually kind of funny, you know… _none_ of them are from Setsuna!”

                Trunks couldn’t help but laugh at that, and when she joined in he was glad that she was no longer crying. It wasn’t that it annoyed him, no… it was that the sound and sight of her tears simply broke his heart a little. The girl was the embodiment of happiness and practically had sunshine falling out of her ass on her worst days, so to see her crying moved him in a way that seeing anyone else weep never had.

                Speaking of sunshine… “You got any sprouts coming up in the pots?” He asked as he sat up, waiting for her nod before he went over to check them out. “Wow, they’re already a couple inches tall,” he said, impressed by her green thumb. “How’d you get them to grow so much in only a couple days?”

                “Well, I can’t give them sunshine because it’ll get cold outside, so I’ve been feeding them my light a few times a day,” she explained. “I honestly wasn’t sure if it’d work, but well… it did,” she finished with a shrug. “Please don’t tell Makoto, though, if she finds out she’ll have me out in the gardens with her almost every day and I honestly don’t much like it.” It was one thing when it was necessary, and Usagi liked flowers just fine, but actually digging in the dirt wasn’t her favorite thing to do in the world, much like sewing.

                “Your secret’s safe with me,” he snickered as he flopped down beside her again and nodded towards her plate in a silent encouragement to eat. He was pleased when she did and he just laid there and watched her for a while, simply enjoying her presence and basking in the pure relaxation his beast felt at the moment, snuggling into his pillow and sighing happily. “Hrm… what’s this?” He asked when his hand went beneath the pillow and he felt something sharp.

                “Oh, I forgot!” Usagi giggled, smiling hopefully when he withdrew the necklace she’d made him and he studied it curiously. “My fingers started to hurt from sewing my coat, so when I took breaks I made you that.” He wasn’t smiling as he looked it over, and her heart sank when he didn’t say anything and just kept staring at it. “You don’t like it. That’s alright,” she said quickly, forcing a smile as she tried her best not to cry at the serious look on his face. “I just made it when I was bored. No big deal if you don’t like it.”

                It wasn’t that Trunks didn’t like it, it was just that he was stunned speechless for a moment. It was one thing to make him boots, to make him a necessity, especially when he was doing the same thing for her. They took care of each other, that was just part of their lives, whether or not he was fighting the urge to mate her. But she’d made him something that wasn’t necessary, something that was ornamental—and she’d made it out of his first kill after landing on Five. Did she have any clue what that meant?

                He’d killed that _wer’kha_ in defense of her, but not only that, the _wer’kha_ itself was considered _the_ courting gift to beat all courting gifts back on Vegeta-sei. Only the strongest warriors could kill one in a fair fight, and to present another with its dead body was pretty much a surefire way to secure a mate. His and Usagi’s circumstances were different because the furs and the meat were a necessity, so the clothes and the food didn’t count so much. Or maybe they did? Trunks honestly didn’t even know anymore, he only knew that she’d made him something, that she’d presented him with what equated to a courting gift even more than his boots ever would.

                She’d made it for him. Not to keep him warm or keep him fed, but because she thought it would look nice on him. Because she thought he’d like it. And to be honest, he really did. “It’s perfect,” he finally whispered as he sat up, meeting her eyes when she looked back up from her food in surprise. She’d clearly thought that he hadn’t liked it, and her hesitant smile warmed him as he scooted closer and draped the bone pendant over his bare chest. “Tie it for me?”

                Usagi’s smile could have lit the world at that moment, and when she was done tying the ends in a secure little knot, she hugged him tightly from behind, her face resting on his warm, tanned back. “I thought you didn’t like it,” she confessed shyly, her heart clenching at the very notion.

                _I love it,_ he thought absently as he grasped the arms around his waist and wrapped his tail around her to hug her without turning around. “I like it a lot, Usa. It’s just that no one’s ever given me a gift like that before. You know, something that didn’t serve a real purpose. Something that just looked nice. Most of us don’t wear a lot of jewelry. Broly does, but who would dare say anything about it?” he added with a snort at the very thought of what would happen to some idiot if they told Broly that his gold adornments made him less than Saiyan.

                “Anyone that said something to Broly would probably wind up a stain on the wall,” Usagi mumbled, cringing at the mental image, unaware of how her thoughts matched Trunks’s perfectly. “And anyone that says that to you will probably wind up as one on the floor.”

                Trunks was no longer thinking of that, though, he was thinking about how her ears were pierced, and how the some of a horn from the _ox’ana_ she’d killed could be used to make a pair of earrings for her. Or maybe a necklace like his? _It would be a courting gift, though, even more so than the skirt,_ he realized, his heart pounding at the thought of giving her anything like that and seeing her wear it every day, a symbol that she was his. _If I gave her something like that, I wouldn’t be able to deny that I’d just made it because she absolutely needed it._

 _I still haven’t a clue why you’re denying it at all,_ his beast huffed even as it purred for Usagi and enjoyed the way she was still holding him from behind, her body relaxed and the scent of her contentment filling it with happiness. _You’ll come around eventually, boy,_ it chuckled when Trunks just rolled his eyes at it and his beast felt Trunks’s animosity towards it. _We’re stuck here now. Indefinitely. I have all the time in the world to just sit back and watch you make yourself stupid over her, and when you finally realize that resistance is futile, I’ll sit back and enjoy my victory._

So that’s why his beast hadn’t been too pushy. The arrogant little shit was just waiting and biding its time, enjoying the entertainment of the non-chase. Trunks really had been wondering why it hadn’t been too aggressive about him pursuing the princess, but he’d just chalked it up to the fact that he was still young. If he’d been older, it might have been a different story.

                _That and I’m not too worried about competition,_ the beast informed him smugly. _Oh no, no other warriors to worry about during our little vacation, no one to fight with for her attention. It’s just us and her and we have to depend on each other for everything. It’s heaven. Ok, not quite yet, but close enough for me. For now._

_Gods, you’re such a **dick** , Kio._

_I know,_ it replied happily, glad that its trolling was getting a reaction out of the prince. _Tell you what? If you’re tired of our little chats, you could always just turn around and kiss her. In fact… I’ll make you a deal. Kiss her right now. Just one little kiss, no strings attached, no demands from me for more than that… and I’ll shut up for two whole days._

Something told Trunks that his beast had an ulterior motive behind the simple request, but it was only a kiss. It wasn’t like he hadn’t already kissed her a dozen times that day, right, so what was the harm? _Seven days._ And Trunks would practically give his tail just to get some peace without his beast constantly egging him on and urging him to do more to the beautiful woman holding him.

                _Three._

_Five._

_Four,_ it grunted, _and that’s my final offer. One kiss, and I swear you won’t hear a peep out of me for four days. One nice… slow… kiss. With tongue._

 _You never said a damned thing about tongue!_ Trunks raged, only to feel Usagi stiffen behind him when his emotions bled into her through the bond. “Sorry. Kio’s being a dick,” he muttered.

                “Oh… I’m so sorry,” Usagi said quickly as she separated from him and looked down guiltily. She’d been enjoying holding him, and for once in her life she hadn’t really felt the urge to fill the quiet up with a bunch of pointless words. She realized then that she’d changed; she didn’t talk quite as much as she used to, but that was because Trunks seemed to get her. He understood her, accepted her for who she was, and she simply didn’t feel the need to constantly make conversation in an attempt to be appreciated. She didn’t have to talk all the time to get his attention. _Wow… I really was a bit of an attention whore without ever really knowing it,_ she mused with more than a little embarrassment. _I need to apologize to my sisters when I see them again; I probably annoyed the hell out of them sometimes._

“You’re fine, Usa. It’s not your fault, it’s just the bond,” he half-lied. It wasn’t her fault, but it had very little to do with the bond. She didn’t need to know that, though, she’d probably offer to make it better just because she’d think it would make things easier on him. And if she did offer to make it better… Trunks didn’t think he’d be able to turn her down.

                _Gods damn it all… I want her,_ he acknowledged with some lust mixed in with the ensuing anxiety he felt. Usagi was looking up at him with a soft, tender look in her eyes that reminded him of the feelings he was beginning to develop for her as well, and Trunks sighed heavily as he ran his fingers through his hair and tried to think of something to say, anything that would distract the both of them from doing something stupid. “I really like the necklace,” he managed lamely. “Thanks.”

                “I’m glad you like it.” On some level, Usagi knew exactly what he was doing and she understood, smiling as she stood and went to the trapdoor and the ladder that would take her outside. “Come on, let’s go gather some nuts and cut some wood while we’ve still got eight or nine hours of light left. Maybe we’ll even run into She,” she added brightly as she began her ascent up the ladder, only for her smile to fall when she reached the top and looked down at the half dozen _wer’kha_ already waiting for them on the ground. “I guess we’re definitely going to run into her,” she amended softly, grabbing Trunks’s hand when he joined her and pointing over the railing.

                “ _R’en au t’uh_?” The prince huffed down at them impatiently. “If it’s meat you’re looking for,” he continued in Saiyan, “you’re going to have your work cut out for you. I suggest you run on back to She and stop disobeying her orders. She promised my mate that no more Saiyans would be killed.”

                “We’re not of her clan,” the biggest one rumbled in reply after exchanging looks with his comrades and stepping forward to address Trunks. “We’re of the clan in the ever-winter.”

                “The arctic circle,” he surmised by their snow white coats. “Ok, fine. You’re not from her clan, but you’re definitely going to piss off your own matriarch if you annoy She too much… so what do you want?”

                “There is talk amongst the clans. Your mate has claimed godhood, and we don’t believe her. A god cannot be killed,” the _wer’kha_ replied evenly.

                “Some of them can be killed. And on the flipside… I’m no god and I definitely can’t be killed,” Trunks countered, his lips twitching up in the smirk he’d inherited from his father.

                “I wouldn’t mind proving you wrong, warrior. Come down and meet my challenge, then we’ll see who is and isn’t immortal.”

                “A fair fight, just you and me. And if I fight you and lose, you leave my mate in peace as a sign of respect,” Trunks added after a moment. “If I win… you’ve insulted my mate by questioning her word, so I’m within my right to smite your clan in retaliation. But I won’t if you vow to leave my mate in peace.”

                After some growling and purring between his fellow _wer’kha_ their leader nodded and the rest of them backed off, forming a large circle around him. “You have my word… now say your goodbyes to your female and come down here to meet your death like you have some honor.”

                Knowing smug posturing when he heard it—hell, his father practically fucking invented it all on his own—Trunks didn’t bother taking that line as an insult and just smiled smugly as he turned to Usagi, who was watching and listening with wide eyes, clearly worrying about what little of their conversation she’d understood. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he chuckled darkly as he kissed her forehead. “You still need a shirt and I think that asshole’s just about your size.”

                “But… but… Trunks, what if—“

                “Your female even doubts you!” The _wer’kha_ laughed from the ground, grinning toothily in challenge when Trunks turned his head and barked out an insult in Saiyan. “Now I see why you hesitate to face me!”

                “Oh gods, I’m going to kick his ass,” the prince muttered. “You stay here, Usa, and don’t come down unless I tell you to, understand me? He’s promised not to harm you even if I lose, but I’d rather not risk you getting hurt.”

                “But She promised—“

                “They’re not from She’s clan,” Trunks explained. “They’re from a northern clan and they’re here with all the others to hibernate and pay homage to She. They’re not bound by her laws, only by their own matriarch’s. It’s a complicated system of different hierarchies, but it works for them sort of like the way squad leaders are in charge of their own people but still answer to me, my father, and then eventually my grandfather. This is a smaller clan,” he guessed, “and this male is likely his matriarch’s mate, judging by his size.”

                “He’s not nearly as big as She’s mate,” Usagi observed quietly. “Do you think you can beat him?”

                “I know I can beat him,” Trunks snorted. “What, Usagi, do you doubt me?”

                “No!” She answered quickly, “it’s not that! I just… if anything were to happen to you…” It would break her heart, simple as that. She wasn’t worried about the lack of protection or his help getting through the winter alive so much as she was terrified of never holding him again. Never seeing him smile again. Never kissing him again. “Please be careful,” she whispered, her cheeks heating up when he pulled her into his arms and he nuzzled her shoulder, then her throat, shivering with pleasure and tipping her chin back in perfect trust when he unexpectedly nipped at the skin and his chest rattled in a loud purr. “Promise that you’ll come back to me in one piece.”

                “I promise, sweetheart,” he breathed as he momentarily lost the will to fight the bond or the pull and drug his lips over her jaw and to her mouth, groaning when she immediately opened to him and she stroked her tongue over his, her delicate hands bunching in his hair.

                _Mmm… and your side of the bargain is complete,_ his beast sighed happily just as he felt her moaning into his mouth and scented her arousal perfuming the air. _I’ll stick around to help you with this fight, though, of course._

“Fuck,” Trunks swore, cringing as he pulled away. “Um… sorry, Usa. I didn’t mean to—“

                “It’s ok,” she giggled, “just take it as a kiss for luck. Now go and kick his ass and make me a sammich from him. And a sweater.”

                “Yes, ma’am,” Trunks chuckled, pecking her on the lips once more before powering up so that his speed would match his opponent’s, then leaping from the top of the house to land in a crouch on the ground right in front of him. “Alright, let’s do this,” he said seriously in Saiyan as he rolled his neck and shoulders to loosen them up.

                “Took you long enough. Was your mate giving you pointers?” The _wer’kha_ chuffed in amusement.

                “No, we were debating whether or not you’ll look better as a shirt or a pair of pants to keep her warm through the winter,” Trunks countered smugly, moving to the left as the _wer’kha_ moved to the right and they slowly circled, each of them planning how they would counter if the other struck first.

                Usagi wasn’t sure who made the first strike as she watched from above—it seemed like they’d both moved at once, like some kind of choreographed blow in the movies—and when Trunks leapt up onto the _wer’kha_ ’s back to wrap his bulging arms around its thick neck, she wondered absently if he knew how downright feral he looked in that moment. His teeth were bared and his eyes wild, and with his long, unbound hair, the beard, and his lack of shirt, he looked like he belonged in that ring.

                Simply enough, he took her breath away, and she wondered if he’d welcome another kiss once he’d achieved victory.

                Despite the fact that he was hip deep in danger and facing a very real life or death battle, Usagi couldn’t help but giggle when she felt his smug satisfaction rolled through the bond as he felt her admiring him, and she watched his lips twitch when his tail whipped out to catch the _wer’kha_ ’s when it drove forward to stab him in the back, much like the first male that Trunks had fought while Usagi had been treed.

                Only this time, his opponent was older, wiser, more seasoned, and the scars littering it beneath its thick white pelt were a testament to its prowess and strength. And its experience threw Trunks for a loop, too, his tail thrashing sideways to catch the barb headed right for his side. “Oh, you asshole,” he growled as he barely managed to smack death away, wishing he had eyes in the back of his head so he could see what the _wer’kha_ ’s tail was doing behind him.

                He hadn’t managed to grab the tail even though he’d avoided getting stabbed with the giant poison factory on the end of it, and as he ignored the regular stabs to his hands from its barbed whiskers, he tightened his grip and growled in frustration.

                “I won’t die as easily as you think, boy,” the _wer’kha_ choked out as it wove its tail through the air and began feinting attacks with it towards Trunks’s back, easily dodging his attempts to secure it and throwing him off by keeping his own feints random and hard to anticipate.

                “Oh, yes you will,” Trunks panted as he sacrificed his balance to shift his weight and wrapped his strong legs around its neck, gasping at the sharp stings to his thighs from its whiskers.

                “Come on, Trunks!” Usagi shouted from above, her heart in her throat as she gripped the railing and her pulse pounded in terror for him. She’d been silent up until then, hardly able to move let alone speak as she’d felt his surprise at not being able to snag the _wer’kha_ ’s tail. That surprise had quickly switched to fury and annoyance, but now that the beast beneath him was bucking wildly, she found herself filled with the urge to move, the urge to do something—anything—the urge to help him somehow. The ladder went over the side just as she watched him go flying through the air, and she heard him land as she swung over the edge and gripped the fur sidepieces of it to slide down quickly without taking the time to climb, so afraid for him that her fear of heights was totally forgotten for the moment.

                Usagi heard Trunks choke out a hoarse order at her to go back just as she landed, but she wasn’t listening. _You will not die!_ She railed at him mentally, her thoughts breaking through even though the bond was only partial. _Hang on!_

                The moon princess was running then, her leg aching from her jarring stop when she’d landed on the ground, but she only made it ten steps before her heart stopped and everything switched to slow motion.

                There was nothing she could do as she watched Trunks pick himself up from the ground with his left arm, his right hanging uselessly, dislocated from his landing, the right side of his chest caved in in a strange manner from where he’d collided with a large rock and it had crushed his ribs. He could hardly breathe; every desperate pull for air and instinct to survive made everything scream in misery, but he somehow had managed to stand, had succeeded in facing his death with honor. _At least Father would be proud that I went out as a warrior,_ he thought wryly.

                He was going to die, Trunks knew it with every fiber of his being, but rather than just accept it quietly, he was going to go out on his feet, looking his opponent in the eye. “Hurt her… and… I’ll finish you… from Hell,” he wheezed, hearing the gurgling in his voice and chest as he spoke. The pain that came from breathing was agonizing, and he turned his head slightly to see Usagi running, tears streaming down her face as she sprinted towards him and screamed in denial. _Fuck looking death in the face… I’d rather have Usagi be the last thing I ever see_ , he thought, his lips twitching up in a weak smile and his chest shrieking in pain as he instinctively stuttered out a feeble purr of comfort for her. _Even beautiful when she cries… so beautiful…_

_…Usagi… I’m sorry…_

The death blow came and Trunks didn’t even feel it—he only saw her running, and when she caught him he only felt her arms around him and her tears falling on his face. He didn’t even smell the poison that had been pumped into his system by the _wer’kha_ ’s tail—he only smelled her hair as his eyes closed, the shampoo she’d used and the soap she’d washed her shirt in. “It’s alright… sweetheart…”

                Her entire body shaking in her terror, Usagi watched his last breath leave him, her scream of fury and grief echoing for all to hear, telling them that the prince of the Saiyans had fallen in battle.


	9. Chapter 9

Vegeta wasn’t sure what in the hell else to do as the silver-haired woman in his arms cried uncontrollably, so at a loss for what else he could do to comfort her, he just kept holding her, hands smoothing up and down her back as soothingly as possible, his purr weak as he wallowed in his own overwhelming grief.

                They’d just seen it all with their own eyes—their heirs’ demise in the atmosphere of Vegeta-sei Five, caught and recorded by a satellite millions of miles away as it orbited Vegeta-sei Four. The image had been hazy and their ships had barely been visible even after they’d magnified the video, but the explosions had been bright and clear enough for them to confirm that her daughter and his grandson were likely dead. There was a chance that they’d survived it, but their chances were slim at best, and if either of them had survived—let alone both—it would be nothing short of a genuine miracle.

                “I need to call my son and Bulma,” he whispered into Serenity’s hair once her sobs had lost the raw, scary edge to them and she’d just sagged into his arms, fully surrendering herself to her misery. “They deserve to know, Ren.”

                Gods, how long had it been since he’d called her that, since he’d addressed her as anything else besides ‘Your Majesty’ or even the rare slip of ‘Serenity’ during their few attempts at peaceful communication? He shouldn’t have called her that, he should have maintained a semblance of formality between them, but holding her while she was crying her eyes out just brought back too many memories of holding her in the exact same manner twenty years ago. Funny, how the right circumstances made it so easy to slip back into old habits. “Ren,” he breathed, “you need to call your daughter’s Senshi. They deserve to know, too.”

                “No,” she sobbed, “no… she can’t… she can’t be dead… s—send another search party… they _have_ to be alive, Geta, I can’t believe for a moment that my daughter’s really gone! P—please!”

                Vegeta felt his heart melt at the sound of the pet name she hadn’t called him by in decades, and when he met her silver-blue eyes and saw his own raw emotion mirrored in them, he said fuck it and threw any thoughts of staying formal right out the window. “Serenity, Bega never reported back. He’s still on Five.” Never mind that there had been rumors about him talking of deserting. Vegeta was pretty sure that he had, but Serenity didn’t need to know that at the moment. She needed hope. “Shit,” he sighed when she only looked up at him, desperately pleading with her eyes for him to do everything in his power to find her daughter. “Sending more warriors to Five is only going to make my people think I’m surrendering to you.”

                “You’re looking for Trunks, too, you asshole!” She shouted up at him, shoving him and leaping to her feet, her half of the ginzuishou glowing brightly in her anger and grief. “Don’t you even care about him!?”

                “Trunks is Saiyan. If he’s still alive he can take care of himself until Bega finds him, and to send more people to look for him would be an insult to him. I want my grandson to be alive and well as badly as you want your daughter safe, so don’t you _dare_ tell me what I’m thinking when you don’t have a fucking clue, Ren!” He shouted back at her loudly. “If I send more warriors to look for him, it makes it look like I’m panicking!”

                “Fine, then I’ll send my own, and so help me, Vegeta, if any of my girls run into trouble in your system, you’ll see the true extent of my fury! It’ll probably even burn me out and kill me, but if it saves my daughter then I don’t care!” She declared as she balled up her fists and fought the temptation to hit him again.

                Yes, she was grateful for the respect he’d shown her by calling her the moment he knew anything about her daughter’s and his grandson’s disappearances, and she couldn’t thank him enough for holding off on watching the video until she’d arrived, but that rigid Saiyan way of thinking was getting on her last nerve just as it had twenty years ago.

                That was why she hadn’t mated him even though he’d been her best friend and staunchest defender, and this was ultimately why their people had been at war for a decade. Yes, his son had been the asshole that had started it all by perceiving an insult from her that was never meant as such, but King Vegeta could have stopped it all if he’d bothered to put his foot down with the man that had been his chosen heir at the time.

                And just like every other time they’d nearly buried the hatchet and seemed to have set aside their differences, he said or did something so unbelievably asinine that he actually made Serenity downright livid. This time it was him holding her as if they’d never even gone to war, his unexpected comfort and the way he’d buried his face in her hair. For a brief moment, Serenity hadn’t felt utterly alone as she’d grieved for her daughter, just as he’d made her feel when she’d been forced to kill her first husband and he’d given her asylum on Vegeta-sei. Then of course, he’d fucked it all up by opening his big mouth and letting his arrogance get in the way. Just like the first time, when she would have mated him if he’d abdicated to Vegeta and come to Earth’s moon to become her king.

                “I’m going home,” she huffed before he could even offer up an apology or more of his arrogance. “I thank you for calling me here right away, Vegeta, but I won’t just stand here and do noth—“

                The king of the Saiyans didn’t catch her before she clutched at the light in her chest and hit her knees, but at least he managed to do so before she fell on her face, and when his beast railed at him for the millionth time in twenty years, he gave into it for once and cradled her to his chest. “Ren? _Ren_!? Are you alright? Say something! What happened!?”

                “The ginzuishou…” She whispered weakly. “…Usagi… my baby…” Serenity could feel pain, anguish, fear, rage, and beneath it all a level of grief that put hers to shame and made it look like a flash in the pan superficial emotion. “Oh gods… she… _she’s alive_ , but…”

                Serenity clutched at her chest again and let loose a cry that shook Vegeta to the core, and he genuinely felt helpless for the first time since she’d refused his offer to mate her so many years ago. He could only hold her tightly as she let loose another loud, heartbreaking keen, her tears soaking through his shirt and her body rigid with pain. “Serenity, please tell me what to do,” he choked out. “Tell me what’s happening, let me help you.”

                “There’s nothing you can do,” a voice said hurriedly from behind him just as he felt a rush of power that always signaled someone from her system teleporting in. That person was moving fast, too, kneeling on the other side of her queen, and when Vegeta glanced up he discovered that it was Setsuna, her expression grim and her eyes filled with tears. “What’s happening to her!? She said the princess is alive, so why is she in pain!?”

                “She’s feeling Usagi’s pain,” Setsuna explained quickly. “Usa is summoning all of her power through her half of the crystal… it’s Trunks,” she added, her voice cracking as she recalled the fresh images she’d watched from the Gates of Time—the events that she hadn’t even foreseen between the crash and the most likely endgame to everything that was happening. “Trunks… Trunks is dead, Vegeta.”

                The king sat down hard at that, and the numbness of shock crept over him as he just sat there on the cold floor and allowed Setsuna to wrench Serenity from his arms. Trunks was dead. The boy he’d raised to be king, the boy that felt like more of a son to him than Vegeta… was dead. “ _Ho’ta m’yo_ ,” he whispered, his voice shaking in its grief. “ _T’ai ho’ta m’yo_ …”

                Setsuna felt bad for him and felt torn between wanting to comfort him and assure him that everything was going to be alright, but she knew that she couldn’t waste any time if she wanted that to actually become a reality. If she couldn’t get Serenity to come around and focus and listen to her, then nothing would be alright. It would never be alright ever again. “Ren! Ren, you need to listen to me! Focus if you don’t want Usagi to burn herself out and die! FOCUS, DO YOU HEAR ME! USAGI NEEDS YOU!”

                “Tell me what to do,” the queen sobbed against her oldest friend and most trusted Senshi, clutching at her tightly. “Tell me and I’ll do it!”

                “Give her all of it. The crystal. Give her _everything_. We’ll keep you from burning out, both Vegeta and myself. With all of the ginzuishou’s light at her disposal, Usagi can heal Trunks and not kill herself in the process.”

                Serenity was doing it before Setsuna even finished her third sentence, and when she felt Vegeta’s hand in hers and the strength of his ki filling her, she pushed everything she had into the dimming light in her chest, shoving all of the silver crystal’s power through the link that Usagi had unknowingly triggered.

                Then the light was gone and so was the link, and Setsuna sagged as she waved a hand over her garnet orb to view the events unfolding on Vegeta-sei Five.

################################################

                She could hardly believe her eyes as she watched what was happening in front of Osa Ge and Trunks’s treehouse, and within moments she was sprinting full speed from the treeline, squinting her eyes against the light emanating from the blonde. It had been bright before, yes, but now it was blindingly so and only growing brighter, so much that She had to stop her advance to shield her face in her paws.

                Inside that light, Usagi was still sobbing uncontrollably over the body of her prince, her clothes having melted away to her princess raiment, the gauzy silk and her golden hair floating along the shimmering waves of power pulsing from the ginzuishou. It was lost on her that he’d sucked in a shaky breath the moment her power had suddenly doubled, and that the crushed side of his chest was regaining its normal healthy shape, but when she heard his ribs pop and crunch and his shoulder did the same, she finally opened her eyes to look at him, her despair shifting to tentative hope.

                “T—Trunks…?” Had she really healed him!? Had she actually had enough power to do it without killing herself in the process!? “Trunks,” she whispered lovingly, her fingers running hesitantly through his hair and cupping his face when his eyelashes fluttered. “Come back to me, Trunks… please… _please_ don’t leave me all alone. _I need you_ , Trunks.”

                The feeling of her power colliding with something stole her attention momentarily and her silver-flecked eyes flickered up to find a _wer’kha_ lying on his side at the edge of the shield the ginzuishou had erected around her. Usagi was instantly filled with rage at the sight of him, but before lying a breathing, rosy-faced Trunks on the ground, she bent her face to his and kissed him devotedly, sighing into it as she felt his lips move against hers ever so slightly. “He’ll never hurt you again, I promise.”

                The moment she stepped out of the shield and up to the panting male that had killed Trunks, Usagi was stopped by She, who quickly dipped her head low to the ground in respect before bringing it up slightly to bump her forehead to the goddess’s, blinking her large violet eyes in awe at the amount of power crackling around the tiny blonde. “ _He… mah’ni. Buh’tir_ —“

                “There’s nothing to forgive,” Usagi whispered in reply. “He’s going to die and there’s nothing any of you can do about it. Let him die with honor.” When She hesitated a moment but eventually dropped her head once more in submission, Usagi flexed her wings thoughtfully before nodding behind her towards Trunks. The matriarch was someone she could trust. “Protect my mate, She.”

                “ _G’in_ , Osa Ge.”

                Usagi had expected the scuffle she heard behind her when her shields dropped around Trunks and was glad for She’s help in protecting him; she didn’t have a ton of energy left even with the full power of the ginzuishou—and how she’d come into that power was something she didn’t even have the heart to wonder about just yet—and the shields were draining what she needed to remain concious. She had one last thing to do, and then she could pass out. Once that was done, she could trust She to protect her and Trunks until one of them could get the other to safety.

                That last task lay before her, looking up at her with cold violet eyes, the white fur around its mouth stained with blood. He should have known better than to run at her shield, and he had paid the price… though to be honest, he would have paid it anyway for snuffing out the life of the man she was falling in love with.

                “ _T’ai m’eh_ ,” the _wer’kha_ rasped. “ _Ho he… t’ai m’eh_.”

                “Yes. I will kill you,” she said, but not unkindly as she felt the gravity of taking a life as an act of revenge. “Die with honor, _ge_.” Usagi was angrier than she’d ever been in her life, but she was a goddess of love, so she was not without mercy as she drew a knife from her subspace and stabbed it through the top of the _wer’kha_ ’s spine, ending him quickly and painlessly.

                Her revenge complete, she looked up to find She surrounded by snarling males, her flank bloody and two dead bodies lying nearby. “Touch her again and I’ll kill you all,” Usagi warned them coolly as she returned to Trunks’s side, her hand stroking She’s wound and healing it instantly.

                “I’ll kill them, period,” the matriarch ground out in Saiyan as she flexed her claws in the blood-stained grass and the hairs on her back stood on end, her teeth bared with the promise of violence and her barbed tail whipping through the air.

                “No,” Usagi whispered, her voice trembling as she reached instinctively through the partial bond, realizing just why her grief was still so strong even though she knew that Trunks was alive. The bond was gone; Trunks had really and truly died, so it had been severed in the process… and it hurt like hell. “She, I… I don’t want any more killing. Please. It’s enough.”

                Was Osa Ge serious!? These males were poised to strike and _wer’kha_ did _not_ simply back down from a fight! To retreat was dishonor! But before She could verbally protest and disobey, the largest male darted forward and went right for the kill, striking out at She with its tail only to lose an eye to her claws and find its tail pinned into the dirt with the massive, potent barb of an alpha female, so wide that the tip of the dexterous appendage was nearly severed.

                She could hear the commotion behind her and knew that another had struck out at Usagi, so She hurried to dispatch her own opponent, mercilessly ripping out his throat and spitting the hunk of bloody, furred flesh to the ground in contempt. When the matriarch turned, she found Usagi covered in blood and surrounded by her holy light, and the remains of her adversary… well, there really wasn’t much left, to be honest, and the remaining males were streaking towards the trees, fleeing what must have been quite a gruesome and terrifying display of an angry goddess’s power.

                She honestly wished she could have seen it herself.

                _The little bastard deserves the dishonor of not being used for meat and warmth. Let him rot. Let his blood feed the grass and his flesh decay, just like his honor has for attacking a defenseless warrior._ The male had attacked Trunks and not Usagi, it was clear by where its remains laid versus Usagi’s position when it had struck and Trunks’s prone body. “ _Au en_ , Osa Ge?”

                “He tried to kill him,” Usagi whispered, her voice cracking as she knelt in the blood and stroked Trunks’s hair from his eyes. “I thought… I thought he was coming for me,” she choked out, “and… and I almost… almost didn’t stop him in time… I nearly lost him again…”

                “Trunks _n’ta_ , Osa Ge. Joo do good. Joo _ji’ta_ good. _T’ai_ good. Joo good _k’sha_. _Hi’nah shi’or_. _F’ri shi_. Good kill.”

                The stern look in She’s eyes made Usagi swallow hard and nod; she’d cry later, once she woke. She could feel the exhaustion overtaking her, and before she even knew it was happening, she felt the grass against her face and fought to keep her eyes open even though she’d lost control of the rest of her body. “She… _nu’or m’eh… buh’tir_ … Trunks… Trunks, please… wake up…”

                Usagi wasn’t sure if she was hallucinating or not, but just as she felt herself losing the fight to remain conscious, she saw his eyes flutter open and felt the hand she was grasping give hers a squeeze. A solid, strong, healthy squeeze. “Trunks,” she sighed in relief, his name the last thing she uttered for a long time.

#####################################

                “It’s not enough!” Vegeta choked out as he quietly panicked and racked his brain for any and every solution there could possibly be to save the failing body of the woman shivering in front of him. “Setsuna, tell me what to do! _Please_ , Setsuna!” He added when she only sat there and stared down at a dying Serenity, his voice breaking and his eyes filling with tears for the first time since he’d lost his mate in childbirth.

                “You still care for her,” the goddess of time said in quiet disbelief. “You care for her deeply.”

                “Yes, I do! I always did! Is that what you need to hear to save her!?” He barked at the woman that was nearly as tall as he was.

                “Do you love her?” Setsuna questioned softly.

                “I…” Afraid to answer honestly, Vegeta hesitated, but Setsuna’s glare wasn’t something to be lightly ignored and he finally swallowed and shook his head slightly. “I did. Once, a long time ago. Not anymore. Or at least, not as strongly.”

                “Geta,” Serenity murmured, her hand squeezing his weakly as she looked up at him through clouding eyes. She wasn’t unconscious, but she was definitely close to passing out, even though Vegeta was steadily feeding her dying body his ki. Ki wasn’t quite enough to replace the loss of the ginzuishou, however; they were only delaying the inevitable by a scant handful of minutes. Serenity was fading fast, her pulse thready and her breaths coming farther and farther apart as her body shut down. “Geta… sorry…”

                “Bite her,” Setsuna ordered after a moment of contemplating their options and the possible outcomes, forcing down her own panic in favor of remaining the one level head in the room. She could have a nervous breakdown later at the Gates of Time where no one would see or hear it except her father, who had been helping her make the right choices to achieve the desired outcome over the next several years. “Bite her, Vegeta, make her yours and tie your life forces,” she elaborated when he just stared at her with wide eyes.

                “No.”

                That refusal hadn’t come from the king, it had been whimpered by Serenity, whose unseeing eyes were filled with fear, her head shaking weakly from side to side.

                And Vegeta knew exactly why she was refusing, even if Setsuna didn’t, and he bent low over the queen and pressed his lips to her forehead, speaking in a gentle tone neither of them had heard from him in twenty years, a tone he’d only ever used with Kalera… and eventually, Serenity. “Ren, I’ll never force you. I won’t even attempt to share the same bed or touch you sexually unless you initiate it or ask for it. I swear it on my tail. Please… I lost you once. I don’t think I’ll survive it a second time.”

                Serenity felt so cold that she was going numb from her toes up, but she felt his warm hand cupping her cheek and his thumb wiping at her drying tears. He’d always kept his promises… and she didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to be bedded, either, not even to save her life… but Geta had never once broken a promise to her, and she knew he wouldn’t ever lie to her, either. “Ok,” she finally sighed.

                The king of the Saiyans didn’t ask a second time to confirm and immediately sunk his teeth into her shoulder, clutching her tightly to him as he prayed to Cha to save her and to spare him the pain of losing a second mate only moments after marking her. _Please, holy goddess… protect my mate. If you need to take someone, take me instead. Let her survive to see her daughter alive and safe._

######################################

                A clawless smack of She’s paw snapped Trunks out of his panic and knocked him off of Usagi, who he’d been shaking in an attempt to wake her, his eyes wild and rolling in terror, and the matriarch visibly cringed when he only curled up and let loose a sob of mourning that made her heart clench sympathetically. “Trunks, you need to help your mate,” She huffed as she grabbed his pants by the back of his waistband and drug him back over to the goddess lying in a pile of feathers that had been created when she’d reverted to her regular body. “She’s alive, but she’ll need—“

                “She… she’s alive!?” Trunks gasped, his energy renewed as he rolled and crouched over her, checking for a pulse. It was steady and strong, and the Saiyan prince nearly collapsed in a heap of tears in reaction. “Usa… w—why can’t I feel her!?” Trunks shouted up at She in confusion. “The bond’s gone!”

                “You _died_ , you stupid, silly male. You don’t remember getting your ass kicked by Na’s mate?”

                Trunks didn’t know who in the hell Na was, but now that he thought about it… “Oh shit,” he whispered, immediately tugging Usagi’s top to the side and bending his head to her shoulder, taking the utmost care not to sink more than his canines into her pale flesh. Now she wouldn’t wake and think him still dead, she wouldn’t panic, and she wouldn’t contemplate the quickest way to end her own life to follow him… just as he had the moment he’d woken to see her eyes slipping shut and hear his name weakly leaving her mouth, then realize that he couldn’t feel her presence in the back of his mind.

                “She saved your life,” the matriarch offered. “Twice.” She nodded at the chunky splatter on the grass when Trunks lifted a questioning eyebrow, then watched as he studied it, wondered what had happened, then realized the depth and strength of Osa Ge’s power. And there was not a single flicker of fear in his expression as he took it all in, either, just a quiet awe and appreciation for what she’d done to protect him.

                Good. Osa Ge did not need or deserve a mate that would fear her. Appreciate her abilities, yes. Fear them, no. Trunks would be an acceptable mate for a powerful alpha such as Osa Ge. He was headstrong and arrogant, but he worshipped the ground she walked on and was wholly devoted to her. No male was without flaws, but Trunks’s could be overlooked since they were exceedingly common in the stronger specimens of their sex. He would breed good kits.

                “The ginzuishou’s nearly drained of all its energy,” Trunks observed through the bond as he drew in a shuddering breath and kissed Usagi’s lips tenderly. “Thank you, sweetheart. I’m sorry that I let my stupid Saiyan pride get me killed. I won’t let it happen again.”

                “She is weak. Take her home and get her warm, then come back for the meat and skins. You should have food and gifts to offer her in thanks when she wakes.”

                “Thanks for the courting advice,” Trunks replied dryly.

                “You’re welcome. You still need a lot of training to be a proper mate, but I’ve decided to help Osa Ge teach you proper deference to her wisdom and respect to her strength. She needs to learn what to expect out of her mate, and I will be happy to teach her all about how a well-trained male lives to serve his matriarch,” She replied, her tone so matter-of-fact that Trunks could only wonder if she was joking.

                “I think you just called me a worthless fixer-upper, She. Thanks,” he finally replied, carefully lifting Usagi into his arms before floating into the air, leaving the massive _wer’kha_ behind to take his mate home and nestle her into the furs.

                She wasn’t far off the mark from his thoughts, however—he was fully planning on caring for her while she was out, and when she woke, he’d somehow find a way to express his gratitude towards her, as well as find a way to deal with the lingering ache he still felt from when he’d thought she was dead. There was only one explanation for the haunting fear that still gripped him… he was falling in love.

                And he wasn’t quite sure if he even wanted to stop his rapid descent into such madness.


	10. Chapter 10

“You used your tail on this one,” Trunks sighed as he finished skinning it, “so we can’t eat the meat. I’ll take it into the woods if you want and—“

                “No. The clan needs meat, and consuming the poison won’t harm us,” She rumbled. “I’ll carry it with me.”

                Trunks’s eyes went wide at the notion of cannibalism, but he chose to keep his mouth shut and just nodded as he set the fur aside and nodded towards the carcass. “You want the other one, too? Usagi and I have more than enough meat to get us for over a year, so—“

                “No, that is your mate’s first kill in battle,” the _wer’kha_ replied tersely. Stupid male! “You’d dishonor her by giving away what she earned?”

                “Usagi would have already offered you the meat, so don’t catch that tone with me, She. She doesn’t think the same way you or I do so don’t get snippy with me. I was only offering because Usa would want me to,” Trunks grunted in annoyance.

                Oh. Damn, he’d actually been anticipating what his mate would want, which was a very good thing. Trunks was learning quickly. “My apologies. I will do what Usagi and I did with the _ox’ana_. I will accept her offer, but split it with her. I won’t decline a gift offered from a goddess… and another matriarch.”

                “Fair enough… in fact, take the lower half when I’m done skinning the carcass,” Trunks told her as he thought of all the things he could make from the teeth. “Yes, I know it has the most and the best meat,” he added when She opened her mouth to protest, “but we don’t need it and Usagi would want you to take the entire thing anyway. And no offense, but we need to hurry up, I don’t like leaving her alone for so long. I want to go back up top and check on her and clean her up… and I’m positive that you’re going to need to go back soon and deal with a total shitstorm from that other matriarch. Na, was it?”

                She let out an annoyed growl as she nodded in acknowledgement and looked towards the trees, where several _wer’kha_ had been waiting on her for some time, all of them wary of her simmering temper and unwilling to approach her without her leave. Na was one of them, though, which boded well for She; if Na was being so cautious, then she obviously wasn’t enraged about losing her mate and two of her kin. Na knew how to pick and choose her battles, and while she was probably pissed off, she wasn’t angry enough to do something ridiculously stupid. The other female knew she was outclassed in every way, and to make a big stink about the results of her own and her mate’s stupidity would only end in her own swift execution.

                This was what happened when you disregarded the head matriarch’s warnings about the formidable goddess taking up residence with her warrior mate. This was what happened when you disregarded the word of a matriarch that was hosting your clan. True, she hadn’t given an actual order to Na to keep her males in check and completely warn them off from Osa Ge and Trunks, but a genuine order would have grated the other female’s temper and pride. Na was a matriarch and a clan leader all on her own; a vicious opponent and an intelligent warrior in her own right. Just not as vicious or as intelligent as She, which was why Na wasn’t _the_ head matriarch of the entire northern hemisphere.

                “No shitstorm,” She finally answered. “No trouble… probably,” she amended. “If there’s trouble, it won’t be anything I can’t handle on my own. Na’s clan is small, only twenty or so males and three females. I have a thousand males. Two hundred females, most of them my sisters. She would be insane to try and challenge me.”            

                “Huh… you didn’t kill off your sisters?” Trunks asked curiously as he began skinning the second wer’kha, shivering at the sight of his own blood on its tail barb. The fact that he’d died was still extremely surreal to him, but seeing his own blood there and knowing that it meant certain death via poison brought it all back to him in a flash of memory.

                Usagi’s pain… his own regret… the swell of emotion he’d felt as he’d watched her instead of defiantly staring down the beast that was about to murder him. The physical pain was something he hadn’t even once thought of since he’d woken to the sound of Usagi whispering his name in relief—no, the jumble of emotions they’d both felt in that moment had been far more raw and intense than any physical pain he’d ever endured in his life.

                Trunks acknowledged that the regret he’d felt at the end wasn’t just because he hadn’t mated with her, either. He’d regretted her tears, for making her watch him die. He’d regretted the arrogance he’d felt and displayed, how he hadn’t taken his opponent as seriously as he should have because of the _wer’kha_ ’s size, and how his stupid hubris had shattered her heart. _If anything, I should have known better than anyone in the history of the universe that someone’s size can be misleading,_ he mused silently as he thought of his father.

                In short, he wouldn’t have been able to decline the _wer’kha_ ’s challenge and he knew that, but he also knew that he could have handled it a hell of a lot better than he had. And Usagi had paid for it far more than he had. “If another male challenges me, I’m definitely going to take the fight as seriously as I do when I spar with Father,” he murmured.

                “I thought that was why you’d lost,” She chuffed in annoyance. “Stupid male. So very, very stupid to underestimate an opponent that’s bigger than you.”

                “She… I’m beating myself up enough as it is without your input,” Trunks stated slowly, “so I would appreciate it if you just cut me some slack right now, ok?” Her curt nod of understanding made him relax, and he went back to his chore of skinning the large beast as he swallowed unshed tears. “So fucking stupid,” he finally whispered. “Usagi… I nearly left her all alone. I nearly left her defenseless. Gods, she would have been beside herself with grief, too. She would have been so lonely… I hate to think that she might have eventually ended it all herself when she realized that rescue’s not likely going to come.”

                “No help?” She asked worriedly.

                “Maybe,” Trunks hedged. “I honestly don’t know. I left a sign burned into the remnants of the ship I found, but with the storm coming from that direction, it’ll be covered in snow in two days. And by the time it melts, any rescue attempts will have probably been abandoned. Don’t… please don’t tell Usagi,” he pleaded softly. “I’ll tell her eventually, but… this kind of thing, I think it might break her.”

                “You have my silence,” She said heavily, feeling genuinely bad for Osa Ge. The little goddess so desperately wanted to go home that there wasn’t a doubt in the _wer’kha_ ’s mind that this news would crush her.

                There wasn’t any more talking between the two of them as Trunks finished his work, and once he was done he breathed a heavy sigh and nodded towards the lower half of the carcass, absolutely emotionally exhausted from the entire ordeal, the conversation with She, and then his own tumultuous thoughts and emotions while they’d been silent. “Damn, I’m gonna need a bath,” he huffed once he finished butchering his and Usagi’s half of Na’s mate and gathered the pieces up into the skin side of the pelt to carry them up top. “She, would it be possible for us to bathe without any of your people bothering us?” He asked suddenly. The odds of being interrupted or challenged were slim to none after so many from She’s clan had watched Usagi put Na’s mate down quickly and efficiently—not to mention the one that she’s pretty much vaporized—but Trunks wanted nothing more in that moment than to hold and tend to his mate without keeping his guard up the entire time. _Damn it, stop thinking of her as your mate,_ he grumbled to himself. _You’re **not** going to mate her, remember!?_

                Funny, how those same words had sounded so confident two weeks ago, only for them to sound like a useless petulant whine… even with his beast silent and not influencing him in the slightest. Oh no, the tenderness and emotion he felt for Usagi was _all_ him, and Trunks was just barely, grudgingly acknowledging it for the first time. It wasn’t just his beast, he couldn’t deny that, not with his beast remaining completely withdrawn for four days, per their deal.

                “They’ll leave you alone until the next new moon,” She rumbled as she lifted her half of the carcass in a paw, waiting to take it in her teeth until she could speak. “That gives you… seventeen suns, yes? Eighteen?”

                “Your count’s better than mine,” Trunks admitted, making a mental note not to venture outside for a few nights starting in two days. The last thing they needed was a lavender oozaru rampaging on top of everything else they had to deal with. _Eh, I probably wouldn’t rampage since I can mostly control it and Usagi’s here to ground me, but better not to take any chances._ “Thanks, She. I know Usagi will be grateful for the respite, and I definitely am.”

                “You are welcome. I will come to check on Osa Ge tomorrow, when the sun is high. Take good care of her, Trunks.”

                With that, She was gone, loping towards the trees at a pace that was leisurely for her, but covered a lot of ground really fast as far as Trunks was concerned, and he didn’t waste time watching her any longer, carrying the first pelt up, then the second that was laden with meat.

                Usagi was stirring, too, and opened her eyes at the touch of Trunks’s bloody hand on her cheek, her eyes immediately brimming with tears and her throat constricting in a sob. “ _Trunks_ …”

                “Shhh… shh, sweetheart, it’s ok,” he whispered, grasping the delicate hand that found his and kissing her forehead. “Come on, let’s go get cleaned up, then you can rest some more, alright? Good girl,” he praised gently as he drew her into his arms and scooped her up, only to pause at the sight of all the meat. “Here, put these in your subspace really quick,” he requested, indicating all of the meat except for one large cut of it that was still attached to the head, leaving the pelts there for him to tan when they returned. “Good… sorry,” he added when her eyes fluttered and she sagged against him, fighting to lift her lids once more. “If I’d known your subspace would wear you out I wouldn’t have asked,” he mumbled contritely as he floated them up and out of the house, the flew towards the lake, keeping his speed slow out of concern for her fear of heights, ready to drop down and walk if she showed the slightest hint of unease.

                “Trunks,” she choked out, tearful again as she snuggling into him and burrowed her face against his bloody, bare chest, getting more of the drying red and violet mixture from himself and the _wer’kha_ in her hair and on her face.

                The Saiyan prince was grateful right then that his beast was taking a four-day vacation, because it would have been raising its head and downright roaring for her at the sight of his blood on her face, and more importantly, her mouth. “Usa, I’m alright. You did good,” he told her gently as he carefully alighted at the edge of the water, mindful not to jar her with his landing. “You saved my life, sweetheart. Come on, please stop crying,” he mumbled sympathetically into her hair, feeling bad for her but unsure how to comfort her. She didn’t stop, though, and he sighed patiently, sitting down on the ground, holding her tightly to him as he purred for her in an effort to ease her. “Usa… Usa, why are you crying? I’m alright. I’m alive, sweetheart,” he finally whispered when she only continued, the sounds tugging at his heartstrings.

                “B—Because I felt you die,” she sobbed. “I was so scared, Trunks! I didn’t know what to do, and then the crystal—“

                Her exhausted babbling halted there, and Trunks genuinely started to worry when she choked for air, clutching at her chest as fresh tears began to copiously spill from her eyes in utter silence. “Usa? Usagi!? Usagi, what’s wrong!? Talk to me, sweetheart!” Panicking at the fact that she had yet to take a breath since she’d stopped talking, Trunks shook her as he sat her up and looked her in the eye. “Usagi, what’s the matter!?”

                “I… I… oh gods,” she sobbed, her total and utter heartbreak bleeding through the brand new partial bond he’d created before she’d woken, so as to spare her from the same anguish he’d endured when he’d woken and found it gone. “The… the crystal… my mother… Momma,” she cried faintly, too exhausted to emit the wail of grief that she felt in her heart but couldn’t quite get out of her due to her weakness.

                Her mother was dead? But how could she know that for certain…? The crystal, Trunks realized in mild shock. She had the full power of the ginzuishou, and hadn’t his grandfather once told him that it was the source of Serenity’s power and immortality? Without it, she’d likely die. But not certainly. “Usagi, she might be alive,” he told her, his voice far more confident than he felt about the matter.

                “No,” she hiccupped, “she… she can’t live without it, there’s no way, un—“ She stilled at that and swallowed her next sob, looking up at Trunks hopefully. “Unless the Senshi… they _might_ have been able to save her…”

                Watching the hope bloom in her eyes, Trunks nodded gently and smiled for her benefit even though he knew he probably looked frightening as hell covered in so much blood, running his dirty fingers through her equally soiled hair. “I’m pretty sure _someone_ would have been with her, Usa. Right? Someone that could have called for help?” Her little nod and the sparkle that was returning to her eyes melted him on the spot, and Trunks dipped his face to hers to press a reassuring kiss to her lips. “Then don’t mourn her, Usagi. She’s alive, I’m sure of it,” he said confidently, his breath ghosting over her mouth. “Until we can prove it otherwise, we should assume she’s fine. If she’s _half_ as tough as you are, she’s probably turning cartwheels right now because she knows that you’re alive.”

                When he put it that way… “Thank you, Trunks,” Usagi sighed, accepting another gentle kiss, her hand trembling from her exhaustion as she cupped his face with it to hold him there, her lips moving against his ardently until he broke away, his pupils dilated with arousal.

                “Ok, enough of that, sweetheart. Seriously, all this blood and then kissing you… yeah, it’s not a great combination if you have any plans to stay a virgin,” he joked, setting her on the grass carefully before gripping the hem of her top and tugging it upwards, politely keeping his eyes on her face even though he wanted very much to look at her.

                “I find it awfully ironic that you’re saying that while undressing me,” Usagi chuckled dryly as she summoned all her energy just to lift her hips for him so he could remove her skirt and panties. The sight of it put fresh tears in her eyes, though, and the stroked her fingers lovingly over the violet-and-red-stained fur. “It’s ruined,” she whispered sadly, “and you worked so hard on it, Trunks.”

                “It’s alright, sweetheart. I’ll make you another one. A better one, now that I got the hang of it. Please don’t cry,” he all but begged as he wiped at her tears. “If it makes you feel any better, look at my pants,” he offered with a tiny smirk, hopeful that she’d laugh and stop crying and simultaneously touched that she’d liked the skirt he made her so much that she was reduced to tears when she saw that it was permanently stained.

                Trunks’s pants weren’t just ruined, they were obliterated from his fight with the wer’kha that had killed him. The thighs were torn up from its whiskers stinging him repeatedly through them, shredded in the back from where She had dragged him by his waistband with her teeth, caked in blood and… “Oh gods,” Usagi whispered, tentatively stroking her fingers over a huge, gaping hole at the top of his shin, where the _wer’kha_ had used its tail barb. It had shattered the bone—she vaguely remembered that his knee and shin had been crushed from the stab wound, that that was one of the first things she’d healed as she’d drawn the poison from his body. The next had been his chest, then finally his broken shoulder and all of the other smaller injuries he’d sustained during the fight. “It doesn’t hurt at all still, does it?”

                “I didn’t feel it to begin with, honestly,” Trunks told her, hoping that that would make her feel better, only to hesitate to answer her next question.

                “How could you not have felt that!?”

                “I… because I…” _Because I couldn’t take my eyes off of you_ , he thought, embarrassed and nervous at the thought of confessing the truth aloud. _Because you were the only thing I wanted to see or feel as I died._

                Sensing that the real answer held a good amount of embarrassment for him but oblivious as to why, Usagi waved in dismissal and smiled weakly, fighting the urge to lay down naked right there in the cool air and doze off. “I’m just glad you didn’t feel the pain, Trunks. The why isn’t important. Now… come on, I need a bath and so do you,” she sighed as she tried to climb to her feet, only to fall over the moment they were under her.

                Trunks caught her easily and lifted her bridal style, checking her over to make sure she was physically fine, trying his best to ignore her nudity as he used his tail to unfasten his ruined pants, toeing off his boots before stepping out of the remainder of his clothing. “I’ve got you, Usa. It’s ok,” he added when she opened her mouth to protest. “I’m not looking, alright? Well, I’m trying not to, at least. Kind of hard not to admire you, honestly. But we both reek and you need your rest, so let’s just put away our modesty for a day. You need my help and I don’t mind washing us both.”

                His calm, rational argument didn’t dash the blush from her face, but Usagi retrieved a single bottle of shampoo from her subspace, all she could muster in her weakened state, and she nodded at the water. “Alright, then… and… I don’t mind so much if you look, Trunks. I mean… I kind of looked at you this morning,” she admitted, her cheeks heating up even more when his eyebrows hit his hairline in surprise. “Well… I couldn’t help it!” She squeaked out. “You were… were… _you know_!”

                Recalling his morning wood, Trunks dissolved into a fit of laughter that lasted a full minute and ended with him kissing her forehead, still chuckling as he carried her into the water, heating it with his ki just as he did whenever he bathed in the wild. “Not too hot, is it?” He asked as the water in their immediate area began to steam, smiling down at her when she shook her head and her eyes slipped shut in pure bliss.

“This is heaven,” Usagi sighed, sagging in his arms despite her embarrassment over her nudity. “Mmm… Trunks… thank you for this. Been dying for a hot bath since we landed.”

                “I thought about asking you to bathe with me before to spare you from the cold water, but I didn’t want you to think I was coming onto you,” he chuckled softly as he cradled her against him, resisting the desire to run his mouth over her throat when she tipped her head back to help him wet her hair. That baring of her throat to him registered as a sign of trust and submission, and even though his beast was being a good boy and staying quiet as it had agreed, Trunks still found himself fighting down urges that were all his own and had nothing to do with his Saiyan instincts.

                He somehow managed to keep himself from doing anything inappropriate as he helped her soak down her golden mane, and once it was wet, he moved to the shallow end and sat down with her draped across his lap and submerged to her neck, weakly leaning against his chest and clearly trying to stay awake. “It’s ok if you doze off, sweetheart, I can wash you,” he assured her as he used his tail to squirt some shampoo in her hair. “You trust me, right?”

                Usagi couldn’t help but giggle half-heartedly at the hilarity of such a question even though she was so weak and tired that she could hardly even keep her eyes open. “I can’t even begin to tell you just how much I trust you, Trunks,” she whispered as she leaned fully into him to keep her head from lolling back. It was hard to hold it up with the added weight from her wet hair, and she was glad that he didn’t seem to mind how all of the strength had pretty much gone out of her as he gently soaped her hair with his free hand.

                She had dozed off by the time he began to carefully, slowly rinse it, using his ki to heat the water a bit more as it cooled down, but she roused a bit when she felt his warm soapy hands begin to wander her bare flesh beneath the water. “Oh,” she gasped, arching into his fingers as he soaped her breasts, her nipples responding to the friction of his calloused palms.

                “Sorry,” Trunks whispered as he kissed her forehead and quickly moved on to her stomach, then her legs. He felt her relaxing again once he was out of sexual territory, but when he reached her thighs she let out another little gasp and dazedly rocked into his hand. “Usa… can you wash between your legs? Sweetheart, wake up,” Trunks added when she didn’t respond and only sighed against him contentedly. “Shit.”

                Trunks honestly hadn’t expected her to respond so much to his touch due to her level of exhaustion, and was fighting down an erection as he smoothed his fingers over her soft skin. It was the most erotic thing he’d ever experienced, but since she wasn’t fully concious he was warring with himself to keep his touches platonic, to keep himself from crossing a very plain line between decent behavior and being a total and complete dick. “Usa, sweetheart, wake up,” he urged her again.

                The gods must have been listening, because she finally opened her eyes and looked up at him groggily, her cheeks stained pink as he watched her realize that she’d dozed off… and that he was sporting an arousal beneath the water that was pulsing against her lower back. _Oh gods… wow,_ she thought absently as she felt the heat of it thrumming in time with his pulse. “Sorry,” she whispered. “You need me to move? Or… I can help you wash?” She offered shyly, plucking the bottle from his tail as she sat up a little further, relying on him to keep her upright with his arm and leaning against his chest, her hands hesitating only a moment to start soaping him up when he only remained silent in response to her questions, his eyes scorching her from the inside out. _He wants me,_ she realized with a mixture of surprise, relief and nervousness as she paid attention to the bond and felt his humming lust running through it, mixed in with fear and a touch of self-anger. _He wants me, and he’s doing his damned best not to make me uncomfortable. Gods bless him, he’s such a good friend. And a good man. Maybe when I’m feeling better, if he still wants me…_ “Come on,” she whispered, cutting off her own thoughts for his sake, realizing that he could feel her hopeful curiosity through the bond. “Let’s wash your hair, Trunks.”

                It took some careful maneuvering to keep Usagi from going under when he carried her further out since she didn’t have the strength to tread water, but they somehow managed to get his hair clean while Trunks laid back and floated with Usagi resting on top of him, her face hot and red at the sexual implications of the position. She didn’t say how much she enjoyed it, either, the way his skin warmed hers as they slid against each other in the water, and how she was aware of his arousal the whole time even though she acted as if she didn’t notice.

                Thankfully they were both too tired to do anything about it, and they separately hoped that they would both cool down by the time they woke up after going home and crashing.

                Usagi fell asleep the moment she was dry, too, finally surrendering herself to sleep as soon as Trunks hauled her up out of the lake and flared his ki to dry them, keeping it high enough to warm her and the air around them, lulling her into a doze before he even took off for home with their soiled clothes bundled up in his tail.

                And once they were home, Trunks pondered how he was going to dress her before giving up on the issue and snuggling in beside her, groaning softly at how good she felt pressed to him naked. He’d tried his best not to notice in the water, especially when she’d been laying on top of him to keep from drowning, but now that they were both dry and beneath the furs, it was impossible to deny that he’d desperately wanted—no, _needed_ —this.

                “It’s just the bond,” he half-whined as he kissed her tenderly and then nestled his face into her hair, his arms and tail wrapping protectively around her. “Just the bond,” he repeated as she sighed his name in her sleep and linked one of her legs with his. “ _Please_ be just the bond,” he found himself whimpering, not specifying a god to which his plea was directed at, knowing now that he probably wouldn’t be able to keep up his denial for much longer unless they let her mark fully heal.

                “Dra help me, I don’t think I have the strength of will to let that happen,” he finally admitted as he closed his eyes and prayed to the gods for guidance for the first time in years.

                He was certainly going to need all the help he could get.


	11. Chapter 11

“Happy birthday,” Usagi whispered several moments after waking and finding him watching her with deep worry in his eyes, managing a weak smile for his benefit when he frowned slightly, clearly wondering if it actually was his birthday. “It is… I think, anyway. How long have I been out?” Judging by how dry her throat was, it was awhile, but not insanely long, right? Judging by his expression, _too long_.

                “You’ve been unconscious for nearly three days,” he said as calmly as possible, but the trembling in his voice gave him away as well as the same subtle tremor in the fingers that were running through her hair. “I… I thought…”

                “Sorry,” Usagi replied hoarsely, “I know I couldn’t help it, but sorry all the same.” Trying to swallow, she only wound up coughing and gagging, but Trunks was there with a cup of water. It was stale, as if he’d been sitting there and waiting with it in hand the whole entire time she’d been out, but Usagi had never tasted anything finer in her life as he propped her up against him and held it to her lips, slowly tipping it back, his hand controlling the flow so she wouldn’t choke in her desperation to drink it all at once.

                “Slowly,” he breathed. “Slow, Usa. That’s it, good girl. Now lay back down,” he ordered once she was through drinking, his voice and hands still shaking as he eased her back onto the bed.

                “Trunks… what’s wrong?” She was awake now, so why did he look like he was going to cry? What was wrong with him?

                When a few tears leaked from his eyes and he wiped at them quickly, sniffling softly, Usagi’s heart ached for him and she pulled him down to her, holding him tightly as he wormed his way beneath the furs and he accepted the comfort she freely offered him. “I won’t leave you,” she whispered, guessing at what was wrong by utilizing the bond. There was so much relief and affection there that it was overwhelming, and beneath it, a lingering fear that bordered on raw terror. “I need you like you need me, Trunks. Trust me, I’m not going anywhere, ok?”

                “I… I trust you,” he choked out, unaware and uncaring of how his face was pillowed on a soft, warm breast. There was absolutely nothing sexual about the embrace, it was just comfort. Soothing, wonderful comfort, and her light was filling him, calming him, assuring him that she was there and was never going anywhere no matter what—“Stop,” he croaked, clinging to her tightly. “Usa, stop, don’t use your light, you’re too weak!”

                She wasn’t too weak to use the small amount of power she was drawing on from the ginzuishou, but his fresh dread stopped her and she didn’t argue with him, choosing to simply hold him instead, breaking through the sound of his continued, quiet crying with a soft, cooing song her mother always sang her as a child.

                Trunks couldn’t understand the words because it was in Lunarian and Usagi’s voice was still dry and slightly off-key, but the fact that it was _her_ voice was the most relaxing, soothing thing he’d ever heard in his life—even more soothing than his own mother’s voice. “Usa _m’yo_ ,” he whispered, forgetting himself momentarily as his eyes slipped shut and he drowned in the scent and sound of her, very real and very much alive.

                It wasn’t until nearly an hour later that Usagi realized he’d gone limp some time ago, and when she withdrew to check on him she found him dead to the world. No wonder, either, the bags under his eyes could have been used for shopping, and his face looked a little thin even with a thick beard growing in, like he’d been forgetting to eat. “Three days,” she sighed as she kissed his forehead, then slipped out of the bed to answer nature’s call.

                She’d noticed a bad smell the moment she’d risen from the bed and found it behind the bathroom curtain, grimacing at first, then turning bright red in mortification as she realized what she was seeing. “Oh… gods bless him,” she finally managed once she’d gotten over her embarrassment and had popped all the dirty blankets and towels into her subspace.

                Trunks had taken care of her as she’d slept, and Usagi was suddenly very glad that all of the clean linens in her subspace had been piled in a corner; if not, she would have been sleeping in nothing but the fur by the time she’d woken. “At least my period didn’t start, too,” she mused, still embarrassed as she thought of Trunks needing to clean her up every time she’d soiled the linens, wondering just what had been going through his head as he’d attended to her basest needs. “I need a bath just thinking about that,” she muttered, “and I might as well let poor Trunks get some sleep while I wash all the linens, too.”

                She pondered sticking around until he woke, but something told her that it was afternoon and she didn’t have a lot of light left, so Usagi kissed his forehead after she was dressed and smoothed back his hair, then scribbled a quick note as an afterthought and left it on her pillow.

                After the battle with the _wer’kha_ she wasn’t worried about getting attacked, and the moon princess strolled confidently to the lake, cringing at how cold the water was when she reached it and vaguely recalling a deliciously hot bath just before she’d passed out. “I should have told him to feed me first,” she realized aloud, knowing that to be the real reason she’d been unconscious for so long. With food, she might have only slept a day, but without it, it took a lot longer for her body to recuperate from the strain she’d put it through by tapping out all of the crystal’s power so quickly. “I’d better eat something once these linens are clean, too,” she decided as she began to wash them with some soap in her subspace, letting the filth wash out and into the lake, musing that she was very glad that they’d started drinking only from the end of the creek that fed into the place where they bathed and did their washing.

                It was nearly dark by the time she was finished, but Usagi wasn’t about to be denied her bath, which was also the fastest she’d ever taken, scrubbing rapidly in the ice cold water, her breath getting sucked right out of her lungs the moment it hit her sex, then her breasts. “Oh gods, that’s so fudging COLD!” She yelped after dunking under the surface to wet her hair, for once wishing that it was so much shorter so she wouldn’t have to spend forever washing it. The sooner she was clean, the sooner she could get the hell out of the frigid water that would have had her balls in her stomach had she been a man.

                After a lot of shivering and more shrieking than she’d ever done in her life, Usagi stumbled to the shore and dried hurriedly in a towel, dancing and jumping between feet to keep her blood flowing even after she’d pulled on her clothes and then her hefty fur coat for the first time. She noticed then that she could smell snow, the scent of it unmistakable, and as she looked to the west and the sunset, she realized that there were heavy-looking and dark gray clouds far out on the horizon. “Oh gods… oh no,” she breathed. They had enough food to get them through for sure, but did they have enough wood!?

                That thought got her moving, and she put everything in the subspace before sprinting for the house, only to come to a screeching halt and smile at the sight of huge piles of logs beneath the house’s shadow, neatly stacked against the trees that supported their home. Trunks hadn’t wasted his time while she’d been dead to the world, apparently, and as Usagi climbed the ladder she decided that she would need to make up for her lack of productivity.

                She started by cooking and eating a full meal, making extra for Trunks in case he woke, smiling brightly when she found one of four cakes still tucked away in her subspace. Usagi might have been late for his birthday, but she had every plan of celebrating it with him when he woke, and that included the matching armbands she’d made to go with his necklace, which she sat on her pillow in place of her note.

                In the middle of her meal, it dawned on Usagi just why Trunks was so much thinner than when she’d fallen asleep, and her mouth hung open in shock at their total lack of foresight.

                She had _all the food_. All of it. Every last bit of food had been tucked in her subspace to keep it fresh, and Usagi was appalled at how very, very stupid they’d been. “He could have starved to death,” she whispered in horror, immediately leaving her meal in favor of unloading several huge hunks of raw meat, cutting them and setting them on to cook.

                It was enough for two days, and Usagi decided that they could eat whatever she cooked in advance, and she would cook some to replace the backup supply for Trunks just in case. And when he woke, they could go through her subspace and figure out what could be left out of it and wouldn’t go bad as quickly as the meat or the cookies and sandwiches she had.

                Her next thought went to vegetables as the sandwiches crossed her mind, and Usagi sighed in relief to find her plants alright. A little wilted, yes, but nothing her light didn’t fix in a jiffy as she poured some of it over them with a healthy amount of water.

                Usagi felt drained after her revelation about the food and finished her meal after washing her hands in a bowl of water, taking breaks between bites to tend to the steaks on the fire, then checking on Trunks once it was all finished. “Poor thing,” she sighed, running her fingers through his lank hair, noting that he hadn’t bathed in at least two days. Other than to make sure they had enough wood to weather the snowstorm coming, he probably hadn’t left her side.

                He must have been so bored. What in the world had he done, cooped up in the house for so long? Her answer to that came as she looked around, and she wondered how in the hell she’d missed the extra white fur in the corner, wadded up in a massive ball that took up quite a bit of room. What was wrapped in it…?

                Curiosity always got the better of the moon princess, but when she peeked inside of what was revealed to be a giant makeshift sack. And it was filled with… “feathers?” She mumbled in confusion. “Heh… guess I’ll find out when he wakes up, but where in the hell did he get so _many_ of them? Gods, that’s a _lot_ of dead birds… unless he got them from She?”

                Doubtful, but she wouldn’t have an answer until he woke, so she decided to just let it be and busied herself with tidying up and lighting scented candles to get the lingering scent of nastiness out of the bathroom area, then sitting down on her side of the bed to work on sewing Trunks some new pants.

                She was just finishing them when he stirred awake, and when he opened his eyes in the dim firelight, she smiled down at him gently, stroking his hair out of his face and tracing his jawline with her fingertips. “Hey,” she whispered tenderly, wiping at a tear when it fell, then another and another.

                “I thought it was a dream,” he breathed. “I… I thought I’d dreamed you woke.”

                “No, honey,” Usagi replied. The word had come out of her mouth without a thought, but rather than try and take it back, she thought that it sounded good and just smiled, only to choke for air when he suddenly leapt to his knees and dove into her arms, hugging her so forcefully that it knocked the wind out of her. “Holy… Trunks,” she choked out, her voice strangled. “Lemme breathe!”

                “Oh gods, I’m sorry!” He babbled out as he withdrew, his hands resting on her sides as he just looked at her in happy disbelief, trying to get a grip on the flood of jumbled emotions that he felt. “You’re ok, Usa?” He asked after a minute.

                “I’m a little tired, but I’ve eaten, so yeah,” she giggled, trying to make light of everything so he’d lose the haunted, scared look in his eyes. “Come on, Trunks, I made extra for you. It’s cold, but I figured you could use your ki to heat it up, right? You look like you haven’t eaten in days, honey,” she added, her voice full of concern for him as she took in just how haggard he still looked even after a solid seven hours of sleep.

                “I haven’t,” he admitted. “I just… I wasn’t hungry. I even gave all the meat from the birds I killed to She.” He was hungry now, though, and Trunks gratefully took a platter from Usagi, accepting the second and third steak she heaped on the pile after she’d looked him up and down and had obviously decided that he needed more.

                “So that’s where all the feathers came from,” Usagi said once he was scarfing down the meat with that typical Saiyan single-minded intensity. “What’d you want feathers for?”

                “The bed,” Trunks said shortly. “There’s more in the bathroom, too, I tucked them away from—oh shit,” he said suddenly, stopping himself and blushing hotly, rising to his feet to go behind the curtain, sighing heavily at the lack of dirty linens. “Usa, I’m sorry. I’d meant to wash them, but I was afraid to leave you for too long and—“

                “Trunks, it’s alright,” she replied easily. “You took care of me and that’s so much more than I would have ever asked of you. Thank you… and I’m sorry that you had to do that. That must have been hard.”

                “Usa… I…”

                The Lunarian waited patiently and quietly for him to say whatever it was he wanted to say, sensing through the bond that it was important, that it was something that had weighed on his mind the entire time she’d been out. Whatever it was, he was definitely troubled by it, his jaw flexing and his cheek twitching as he tried to find the right words.

                “The bond,” he finally answered in a whoosh of air. “I think… I think it might be survival instincts, too, since you’re a woman and I’m a man… but I…”

                Hiding her disappointment, Usagi swallowed hard and nodded slowly. “It’s alright, Trunks. We need to let the mark heal, I know… and I understand.”

                That hadn’t been what he was going to say at all, but Trunks caved to his own stubbornness, swallowing the confession he’d been about to utter in the wake of her finally regaining consciousness. Usagi would never, ever know how distraught he’d been the last three days, how ready to end it all he’d been if she’d died, and how he’d told himself a million times that if she was awake he’d kiss her and admit his growing feelings for her. But now… she wanted to let the mark heal, and if his beast hadn’t still been gone he would have likely been usurping control and pinning her to the furs to mate her. His beast was on vacation for a few more hours, though, and Trunks just nodded in agreement, unwilling to argue with her about anything at all after three days of thinking that he was going to lose her. “If that’s what you want, Usa.”

                Usagi didn’t miss his slightly deflated tone and lifted a questioning eyebrow as he sat back down to eat, only not with the same zeal as before. He seemed subdued now, cowed and submissive, and that was not the Trunks she knew and lov—er, _not that word. Not like that kind of love… not yet, at least._ “Trunks? What do _you_ want?”

                “I… I don’t know,” he muttered into his food. “It’s the bond, I know that. I just… … … I want whatever you want, Usagi,” he sighed, running his fingers through his hair in frustration, noting how oily it was, as well as how long his beard was getting. “And a bath… and a shave.” Desperately needing a change of subject, he headed towards the hatch. “You got a clean towel in there, Usa? Maybe a razor?” She nodded quickly, but when she hesitated with her hand in her subspace and gnawed on her lower lip, Trunks knew that something was definitely bothering her about his request. “What is it, sweetheart?”

                “I… it’s just… I only have five razors left,” she confessed in a rush, coloring brightly at the selfishness of it all. “Gods, I’m horrible,” she sighed as she withdrew one, still capped and brand new, holding it out with her head down in shame. “Happy birthday… but I don’t want to hear any jokes about my hairy blonde legs and armpits when I run out of stuff to shave with, ok?”

                “You won’t have to,” Trunks chuckled. “Ten credits says that you never learned how to clean these properly when you’re done shaving. I can make one of these last me a couple of months if it’s properly cleaned and dried when I’m through with it. I’ll show you next time we take a bath together,” he promised, flashing her the patented royal grin when she handed over a towel and a bottle of soap and she beamed happily at the offer.

                Shooting through the early morning sky towards the lake, Trunks managed to make it into the water and heat it some before falling to his knees, trembling there as he tried not to have some kind of nervous breakdown. “What does she want from me?” He finally asked himself once he could control his shaking hands long enough to lather himself up. “Does… does she really, actually want me? Is that why she asked what I wanted? Or am I just reading too much into it? Fuck, why can’t this be easier!?” he wailed at the rising sun, actually missing his beast’s presence for the first time in his life.  “Why can’t she just be Saiyan!? Hell, at this point I’d happily be fully Solarian just so I wouldn’t have to worry about my father trying to kill her!”

                Now that he was away from Usagi and out of earshot, Trunks took full advantage of his privacy and ranted and raved as he scrubbed himself meticulously, unaware that he wanted to look and smell good for her on a subconscious level, even paying attention to cleaning his fingernails with the knife that had been strapped to his pants and making a mental note to ask Usagi for a file later on. And once his entire rant was done about how he wanted her but couldn’t possibly act on it, he flopped back into the hot water and remembered the last time he’d been in the lake.

With her.

Lying on his chest so that she wouldn’t drown, both of them ignoring his arousal as it had pressed enticingly against her belly, aching for her to slide up and straddle him. “Oh, gods damn it all to hell,” Trunks huffed in annoyance when he felt himself instantly harden at the memory. “Kio, are you lurking? You seriously have to be for me to start getting a boner when I’m thinking about how weak and helpless she was.”

No response came, and rolling his eyes, Trunks started to swim to shore, only to stop and realize that he was alone. Totally and utterly alone. Absolute privacy. Hell, he couldn’t even smell a _wer’kha_ anywhere nearby. Licking his lips as he let the naughty thoughts take over again and he slid back into deeper water, Trunks took himself in hand and contemplated his odds of getting caught in the act. “Slim to none,” he finally decided. “And besides, it’ll probably do wonders for my mood and make it a hell of a lot easier to keep my hands to myself.”

############################################

Unbeknownst to either of them, Queen Serenity and her daughter woke at the exact same moment, but the former of the two was still as weak as a newborn kitten and let out a soft groan as she trembled from the loss of the power that was always steadily humming through her.

“Shit! Ren, you’re awake!”

“Geta…?” She asked softly, taking in his deeply worried expression and the bags beneath his eyes. Like grandfather, like grandson; Vegeta had been up just as long as Trunks had, nursing a beautiful Lunarian back to health. “Oh gods… I remember,” she breathed in a mixture of awe and horror. “And… and I’m _alive_.” Casting a look back up at him, Serenity clutched the sheets around her, aware of her nudity beneath them, but Vegeta was already backing off and backing down, no longer looming over her and moving back to the chair he’d occupied at the side of his own massive bed for the last three days.

“I didn’t share the bed. I promised I wouldn’t and I won’t,” he rumbled, a twinge of pain in his tone as he ached to join her. Not to mate, but just to hold her again like it was old times. A few stolen kisses would have been nice, too, but he wouldn’t have pushed his luck; he would have just been happy to hold her in his arms again without any fear of violence.

Feeling his emotions and sensing the train of his thoughts if not all the details, Serenity managed a watery smile for his benefit and beckoned him back over. “Just that and nothing more, Geta. And… I won’t object to you sharing the bed with me, but no funny business. Fair enough?”

“Yes,” he said softly as he rose from his chair again, hesitating to slip under the covers until she gave him a reassuring nod.

Vegeta drew off his shirt and toed off his boots, but he left his pants on as he slid in beside her, hesitating yet again to draw her into his arms. She came to him instead, and he sighed happily at the feeling of her curves meeting his unyielding muscle, and he instantly remembered the last time they’d curled into each other just like this.

She had just given birth to Usagi and she’d had a lot more softness to her, something that Vegeta had enjoyed immensely as well as the feeling of squirming new life lying on his chest and little hands tugging curiously on his beard, then stilling as he’d chuckled at her liveliness and purred for her.

“I wonder if you would have chosen differently if you knew just how much I’d adored your daughter,” he mused aloud.

“I knew, Vegeta, but my people needed me. If she was really so dear to you, you could have abdicated to your son,” she reminded him none too gently, sick to death of the same conversation over and over, the could have beens and should have beens. He’d had the choice and he’d made it… and so had she.

“Vegeta was never fit to be king,” the king admitted aloud for the first time in his life. At least his son had recognized the same and had very willingly relinquished his title of crown prince the moment his own son, Trunks, had been born. “To leave my people with my son as their king would have been a harsh sentence, Ren. I have no doubt that he would have tried to do a good job at it, but he’s just not cut out to be in charge. He’s too selfish, he doesn’t know how to sacrifice his own well-being for anyone else… including his mate,” he finished bitterly, feeling a pang of guilt as he thought of Bulma, who had all but completely rejected the prince and had refused to see him for nearly a decade.

Sighing tiredly, Serenity couldn’t help but agree and decided that they needed a change of subject… and a change of venue, according to her protesting bladder. “Geta… I need to pee,” she admitted, blushing self-consciously at the admission, hoping that her legs could even hold her up to carry her there.

“Oh. Why didn’t you say something sooner?” He snorted, shifting back up to his knees and scooping her up naked, ignoring her protests about her lack of clothing as he slid out of the bed and carted her to the toilet. “Ren, who in the hell do you think took care of you? You were out for three days. No one can hold their water that long, not even a Saiyan warrior.”

 _He’d_ taken care of her!? “Oh… but… but why…”

“Because no one knows you’re here except for Venus and Pluto,” he drawled out patiently, “and Venus is none too happy about the fact that we’re mated… ugh, I need to call and give her a report like I promised, too.”

“Wait… none of your people know I’m here?” She questioned incredulously.

“Nappa does, but I was hardly going to let him see you naked, Ren,” he replied dryly. “I didn’t tell anyone else because I wasn’t sure what their reaction would be. I thought it would be better to tell my people once you were awake and capable of at least running if you couldn’t defend yourself. Can you still teleport?”

“I don’t know, and I’m honestly still too weak to try,” she confessed. “By all rights I should have died when I gave the crystal—oh gods,” Serenity gasped, her hand going to her throat. “Usagi! Is she alright!? Did Setsuna say if—“

“It worked,” Vegeta assured her gently from just outside of her line of sight, waiting for her to finish using the facilities. “They’re both just fine, and Setsuna’s been letting me take a peek into what’s happened whenever she comes to check on you. They’re falling in the L word, you know. _And_ they felt the pull. _And_ Trunks has partially marked your daughter in order to find his way back to her when he leaves to hunt for rescue. Wanna take bets on how long it takes them to mate?” He chuckled.

In the bathroom, Serenity was just gaping and shaking her head in disbelief, and when the king poked his head around to check on her, she scowled up at his pleased expression. “I would have thought you’d be as mad as I am.”

“I was at first, but I’ve had three days to get used to the idea and… I approve. You should see how they’ve been together before you make any judgments, Ren. Just trust me, alright?”

“Fine,” she sighed, linking her arms around his neck when he scooped her back up and carted her back to the bed, ignoring the very real warmth she felt in his arms as he carried her and when he crawled back into the bed with her and held her tightly. “Is Setsuna going to come back by? I’d like to see for myself if she’d let me.”

“I was just waiting for you to get settled again,” Setsuna replied as she teleported in, smiling brightly despite Serenity’s immediate glare. “Usagi woke up a little while ago, too. Poor Trunks,” she added, her smile falling as she recalled his fear of losing Usagi and his tearful relief when she’d finally woken up. “He’s sleeping right now… here, look,” Setsuna offered, holding out a mirror she borrowed from the Gates of Time, waving her hand over it so Serenity and Vegeta could see what was happening on Vegeta-sei Five.

“Boy looks even worse than when I looked in yesterday,” the king rumbled in concern, flinching at the sight of Trunks crying his eyes out as Usagi held him tightly and sang to him softly, cradling him securely in her arms. “Is he going to be alright?”

“He will be after he gets some rest,” Setsuna assured him. “He still hasn’t even napped, and it’s not like he had me, Minako or Nappa to talk to and support him while he took care of Usa. You know how terrified he’s been since she passed out.”

Vegeta was waving her off when she opened her mouth again, gaping at the mirror in surprise. “Did… did I just hear… rewind it, Setsuna!” He ordered excitedly, only to listen even closer and grin when he confirmed that he’d heard right. “Heh… well, it’s about damned time.”

“What?” Serenity asked in confusion. “I couldn’t hear it.”

“He said ‘Usa _m’yo_ ,’” Vegeta explained happily. “Well, that seals it for me as far as I’m concerned. They’ll be mated in a week. Want to throw in on the betting pool, Ren? Nappa said it’d be two weeks. Mina said it’d be a few days at most. Setsuna’s not allowed to bet because if she doesn’t know the outcome already, I know she’ll cheat and look,” he added teasingly, winking at the goddess of time when she rolled her eyes at him.

“Get some sleep, Vegeta,” Setsuna huffed. “The lack thereof has made you as loopy as a teenage girl.”

Serenity couldn’t help but think that Sets had a point; she’d never seen Vegeta this happy in all the years she’d known him, and even though she was really enjoying the change in him, she was a little worried as well. “When was the last time you slept, Geta?”

“Oh, don’t start mother-henning me, Ren. I slept a couple hours in the chair while Nappa kept watch last night. I’m fine, just hungry… speaking of which, you need to eat something as well and—“

“Give her some of your ki, Vegeta,” Setsuna reminded him, nodding in approval when he immediately slipped a hand beneath the covers and pressed his hand to Serenity’s chest to give her some of his energy.

There was an immediate change in her from it, and the queen perked up in surprise, no longer feeling like she just wanted to doze back off. “Oh, wow. Thank you, Vegeta,” she said in surprise, smiling as he nuzzled her shoulder, the thought never even crossing her mind to ask him not to do that. Not when his contentment was rolling through the bond along with his total exhaustion and she could feel him fighting sleep even as he maintained the façade of feeling completely rested.

His happiness wasn’t faked in the least, though, he was genuinely thrilled that she was finally awake and thanking the gods that she’d recovered from nearly dying even as he reinforced his vow to her not to force her into anything she didn’t want. He would continue to refresh her mark to keep her alive and they would technically be a mated pair, but if she never wanted to consummate the bond, he would honor her wishes. _Don’t know how often I can be around you if that’s the case, though,_ he admitted, his mood growing sullen.

“We’ll… I don’t know. We’ll figure something out,” Serenity decided aloud, not used to communicating through the bond. She was no stranger to telepathy, but it was like they actually shared a large part of their own distinct minds with each other, and that was definitely going to take some getting used to for her. “How do you do that so easily, anyway?”

“Kalera,” he answered with a shrug. “And before that, communicating with my beast. The way you use the bond is pretty much the same way you would talk to your beast if you were a Saiyan. You’ll get the hang of it. Setsuna… I waited to ask until my queen was awake,” he added towards the time goddess. “How long until we can retrieve the children?” When Setsuna fidgeted in place and wouldn’t make eye contact, the king frowned and waited for her to look him in the face again, fully aware of how nervous she seemed. “How long, Setsuna?”

“You won’t like it.”

“Sets, just tell us,” Serenity huffed, “and then you can tell us _why_ we can’t just go get them now.”

“Not until summer after next. A year and a half, Your Majesties,” she replied evenly, steeling herself to teleport out just in case they both exploded.

“BUT WHY!?” They chorused angrily, both of them sitting up so fast that they nearly bumped heads.

“The survival of both races depends on it,” Setsuna said as calmly as possible. She’d planned this conversation out a million times, but when faced with two of the most powerful rulers in the galaxy, she found herself on edge and trying her best to remember her rationally planned arguments. “If they’re taken from Vegeta-sei Five before their due time, there’s a large risk that one or both of them will be killed in the aftermath, which will spiral both Solarians and Saiyans into all-out war. No honor, no morals. What’s been going on during the last ten years will look like a barroom brawl by comparison. I’m talking about the total eradication of both races within twenty years. But if you wait to rescue them, none of that will come to pass. King Vegeta, your son will accept their union if you wait eighteen months. If you pull them out before that, shit will hit the fan.”

King Vegeta bit his tongue and counted to ten before replying, reminding himself several times in that span how much he loved his grandson, and how this was for the good of them all. “Alright. They stay. But what’s the damned difference, Setsuna? I can understand waiting for them to mate. But eighteen months? Why so long? What difference would that make to my jackass of a son? Why would he possibly react any differently now or then?”

“Because eighteen months from now… there will be babies.”

####################################

Usagi’s stare drew his gaze, and Trunks looked at her curiously when she just kept staring as he put his damp towel away, the razor wrapped up in it. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I liked the beard better,” she said honestly. “I dunno why… it just looked good on you. Gave you some character.”

His mood much improved from his alone time in the lake, Trunks flashed her a grin and knelt where she was working, kissing her cheek before pressing his shaven jaw against it. “I thought that girls liked the baby-faced look. Did I at least get it close enough?”

“Yeah, definitely nice and smooth,” she answered, blushing when he nuzzled her. She missed the tickle of the beard and the mustache, though, even if she’d never confess that out loud. “I’m not saying you don’t look handsome, Trunks. I just liked the beard. Not sure why… it just looked good on you,” she repeated.

“Well, maybe I’ll let it grow back out, then. Heh… I saw my reflection in the water, too. I looked just like my grandfather,” he snickered. “I bet the old man would get a kick out of seeing me with a goatee like his, especially since Father hasn’t started growing facial hair, yet. Ah, the joys of being a half breed.”

“Trunks, is that—“ Biting her tongue, Usagi smacked her palm to her forehead. “Sorry, you said not to talk about your father. Moving on.”

His smile fading, Trunks was silent for a minute before sighing heavily, and to her surprise, he actually answered the question she’d been about to ask. “Is my lineage the reason my father’s an asshole to me? No and yes at the same time. My father’s racist, yes, with my mother being the one exception, but they felt the pull, so there wasn’t a choice in the matter. The pull is destiny,” he explained quickly, not wanting to discuss it in depth out of fear that he’d finally confess feeling it for her. “Resistance is futile, and a Saiyan’s beast will go batshit crazy if it’s fought for too long. But yeah… my father doesn’t care much for other races and probably never will. He thinks that they’re inferior. That’s probably part of the reason he hates me, but I honestly think it has more to do with the fact that I wasn’t planned. He was happy to finally have an heir and someone to pass the crown to since he never wanted it, but he wasn’t ready to be a father. My mother gave him a lot of shit for it, too, so I think his resentment has more to do with their relationship than it does with me personally. It’s complicated,” he continued, “and I don’t like talking about it because just thinking about my father makes me angry. He dotes on my sister, but unlike me, _she_ was planned… and she’s not a boy. Father’s always had a soft spot for women, just like my grandfather, and yes, _ja’ja’ta_ has never treated me like something on the bottom of his shoe, but… ”

“But your grandfather loves you,” Usagi offered gently, recalling all the times he’d talked freely and extensively about King Vegeta since they’d become friends, while Trunks only mentioned his father in passing. And like he avoided the subject of his father, she still had yet to bring up her own and ask the questions that had been weighing on her mind for two weeks. “I get why you don’t want to talk about him, though. I don’t want to talk about mine, either. Change of subject… what in the hell are the feathers for? You never told me.”

Managing a smile for her benefit, Trunks pointed at the fur they were sitting on. “Get up, it shouldn’t take us long.”

“Long for what?” She asked as she stood, only to notice that Trunks had doubled it up and sewn the edges together while she’d been asleep. There was still a three foot gap at the corner though, almost as if… “Oh gods, what a brilliant idea, Trunks!” She exclaimed as she ran over to the fur in the corner that was gathered up around all the feathers. “A real bed, this is going to be so wonderful!”

“I might not have enough feathers to make it as comfortable as we’d like,” he said thoughtfully as he went to get the other equally large bag of feathers while Usagi went right to stuffing them into the makeshift mattress, “but I can always fly south for a day and ambush some more waterfowl. They’re ridiculously easy for me to catch. No, don’t put the prime feathers in there,” he said quickly, snagging one out of the handful she had. “I should have separated them as I went, but I was in a hurry to pluck all the birds before sundown since it was going to rain. Speaking of which, we need to waterproof the roof before it warps. I wish I’d thought of that when we built it, but at least there’s a quick solution that I can use to do it today.”

“Well, then get on that and I’ll take care of the mattress,” Usagi offered. “Unless you need my help? I don’t like getting filthy, but I will if I have to.”

Smirking at the way her chin had tipped up and how he could feel her pride through the partial bond, Trunks knew she meant it but shook his head. “Nah, it’s not that big of a surface, so I should be able to handle it fine. You got a paintbrush or something I can use? I’ll need a couple of buckets that you don’t mind never using again, too.”

“Shit,” Usagi swore when she only found one bucket and no paintbrush. “What do you need it for, anyway?”

“Tar. There’s some tar pits I flew over about a thousand miles south of here. If I go Super Saiyan and fly at top speed, I can get there and back in about a half hour. Guess I can make two trips, but that’s gonna leave me with no pants if I use the cloth instead of a brush.”

Removing the bone combs he’d made her and setting them aside, Usagi stood and pulled a pair of scissors out of her subspace. “Do it before I lose my nerve,” she said sadly, handing the scissors over handle first. “Paintbrushes are made from hair and mine’s more than thick enough. Come on, do it before I lose my nerve,” she urged him, turning around with her back to him.

They needed the paintbrush sorely and Trunks knew that it would grow back, but he hesitated the moment he was on his knees and shook his head slowly. “I don’t think I can, Usagi.” He loved her hair—it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen and he loved to wind his fingers in it as they slept… and whenever he kissed her. “I don’t think I can.”

“Trunks, it’s not like you’re shaving my head,” she huffed. “Just cut it to a couple inches above my ankles. It’s been dragging the floor anyway and I was due for a trim before I even left for Vegeta-sei. Really, it’s ok,” she added gently when he still just knelt there on the floor, his fingers running through the golden strands. “It’s less than a foot, Trunks. It’s alright. Please don’t make me do it, because I’m sure to botch it and make it uneven as hell if I do.”

“Fine,” he sighed, “give me a hair tie and a brush.” Once he had the requested items, he started brushing her hair out until it was smooth and shiny, then he started from the top and began braiding it. It took twenty minutes just to get it into a single, ridiculously thick plait, and when he was done he quickly cut six inches off of the bottom and tied her braid with another rubberband that she’d provided. “There, done,” he sighed. “I wish my hair was long enough for it, I would have given mine in a heartbeat.”

“The hell,” Usagi countered with a grin. “You shaved off the beard; I’ll be _damned_ if I let you cut off that little ponytail. The long hair looks hot on you, Trunks.”

His father was always telling him it made him look like a sissy, so Trunks blushed even as he stepped closer to rest his forehead to hers, fighting the urge to dip his face in and kiss her. “So… you think I’m hot?” He teased. “Because that’s how I heard it. Saiyan ego and all, you understand.”

After their discussion about the bond, Usagi was also fighting the urge to kiss him, but she couldn’t help herself and cupped his smooth face in her hands, her heart pounding as she dared to initiate a mostly chaste kiss. “There’s your answer,” she whispered when she finally broke it, noting with some disappointment that he’d held absolutely still. He didn’t want her, then… maybe she’d read him wrong this entire time and it was just the bond making them act so amorously, but to her it felt real, and his lack of reaction to the kiss hurt her in a way she hadn’t expected. “Sorry,” she added when he also didn’t answer, the look in his eyes indecipherable as she boldly held his gaze for what felt like forever.

Usagi wasn’t ready for it when his mouth violently collided with hers, and she let out a squeak of surprise as he bunched his hand at the base of her loose braid to hold her to him, his lips savage and demanding as he devoured her, the kiss downright raw and desperate as he lifted her against him and backed her into the wall. Her shock was gone quickly, though, and she returned it just as heatedly, one of her hands mirroring his and fisting in his lavender strands, the other clutching at his bare back, a needy moan leaving her as he ground his stiffening arousal up into the junction of her thighs.

This was what she wanted, this was what she needed—that raw passion she’d felt with him the very first time he’d partially marked her shoulder and the steadily growing warmth filling her from head to toe whenever she so much as looked at him. He’d asked her before what she wanted, and well, this was it.

 _Oh yes,_ she thought as their tongues danced and she arched into a calloused hand that had snaked its way up her shirt, another moan leaving her when a zing of pleasure shot to her core at the sensation of him cupping her breast. _This is what I want. He feels so good… he feels so right…_

But Trunks wasn’t as on board with it as she was, and was fighting the desire to take her back to the bed and strip her down and claim her, choking out a whimper when she rolled her hips against his in a clear request for him not to stop. “No,” he groaned between kisses, drawing in a shuddering breath when he felt her nails digging into his spine, just above his tail, making him harden painfully. _Fuck me running, I love it when a woman digs them in… fuck… gotta stop… can’t… we can’t…_ “Usa, **_no_** ,” he managed again even when she whimpered with need and ground down against him.

“It’s ok,” she breathed, her voice hoarse and sultry with desire, the sound of it nearly breaking him. Usagi broke the kiss then, looking up at him with eyes darkened with lust, panting softly as she fought the urge to kiss him again. “You asked me what I wanted, Trunks,” she whispered nervously, her voice beginning to tremble. “I want this. I want _you_. I never wanted Endymion or anyone else before, but… I want _you_ … and… and I want to make love with you.” _I think I love you,_ she added silently, unable to speak the words out of fear that he’d get angry with her. Saiyans didn’t say that word, after all, and the last thing she wanted to do was upset him when she could already feel how torn he was.

Trunks wanted her too, she could feel it, but at the same time…

“We _can’t_ ,” he somehow managed despite his pounding need for her, the words coming out in a husky, mournful tone. Gods, if he hadn’t taken care of himself in the lake, he would have probably already taken her. “Please, sweetheart… please understand. I don’t want to hurt you, and the thought of hurting your feelings is killing me right now, but **_we can’t_** and you know why.”

“Your father,” she whispered without hesitation, knowing full well why he’d stopped, why he was fighting this mutual attraction they felt for each other with every ounce of willpower he had. “I… Trunks, I… I just…”

The heartbreak in her eyes made his chest ache and nearly changed his mind, but Trunks managed to strengthen his resolve by thinking of how his father would probably kill him—or her—if he took her as his mate, and he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell he could bed her without fully marking Usagi and demanding the same of her in return. The pull was just too strong for them to do it half-assed and try to let a half-bond fade before they were rescued. “I wish it could be different, _atti_. I really, really do. If I was fully Solarian, I’d happily make love to you. Dra knows I want to. But we can’t. We need to let the mark close up, and I promise you that when it does, we won’t want each other as much as we do now. It really **_is_** just the bond,” he lied softly. “It’s not real.”

Usagi didn’t want to sound like she was begging, but that last part just didn’t ring true for her and she leaned in to kiss his chest just above the stained leather string of the necklace she made him. “Trunks… it feels real to _me_ ,” she finally whispered, fighting the urge to cry. No, she wouldn’t cry, not in front of him, not over this. She wasn’t going to manipulate him with tears, even if those tears were genuine and not some ploy to make him feel guilty. If she was going to cry, she’d wait for him to refuse and then leave to get the tar for the roof. “It really does. I… I don’t think it’s just the bond. Not for me.” _I think I’m in love with you,_ she thought again, wanting nothing more than to say the words out loud. “This feels… _right_.”

Trunks couldn’t agree with her more, but he shook his head even as he pressed a single apologetic kiss to her lips, keeping it short and sweet. “No, _atti_. Please don’t be upset. Please understand,” he repeated as he lowered her to her feet, knowing that if he held her much longer like that, he’d lose his resolve.  “I’m sorry, Usagi, I really hope you know how sorry I am that I can’t be that man for you.”

The Saiyan prince watched his princess shut him out slowly, her eyes hardening as she nodded and pushed past him to sit at the edge of the bed, going right back to work, stuffing feathers into the fur mattress steadily. “Go get the tar,” she whispered without turning to face him as she addressed him.

The bond was closed, too; she’d somehow figured out how to build walls around her emotions despite the fact that they’d never closed one another out before, and Trunks stared shamefully at the back of her head, gnawing on his lip as he tried to think of something to say to make it better between them. He didn’t want to break her heart. That was the last thing he wanted, but they couldn’t be together and he couldn’t think of a nicer way to tell her that than the way he just had. “I’ll be back in less than an hour,” he told her as gently as he was able, silently willing her to look at him. She wouldn’t, though, she only kept steadily stuffing the mattress, so Trunks picked up the bundle of hair she’d sacrificed and the bucket she’d given him, going to the hatch. “I’m sorry, Usagi.”


	12. Chapter 12

Trunks wasn’t surprised to hear her crying softly when he returned, and knowing that watching it would only break his resolve, he endured on the roof while he kept the tar heated with his ki in the cold wintery air and went about spreading it with the paintbrush he’d fashioned from her hair, cringing the first time he dipped the golden strands into the goopy dark brown mess.

                By the time he was finished, he was starting to get worried about Usagi and the fact that she was still sobbing quietly below him. “She’s in love with me,” he whispered, his throat closing in grief and guilt as he fought the desire to go to her, to make love to her despite it all, to tell her that he thought he might feel the same. But that wouldn’t make everything better; that was only a band-aid on the even larger metaphorical wound that would arise when they were rescued and his father discovered that he’d taken a Solarian as his mate.

                “He’ll kill her,” he reminded himself repeatedly as he washed in the lake, scrubbing hard at the tar that had dried on his skin, leaving raw spots on his hands and wrists by the time he’d gotten clean. Trunks had to fly back naked, too, since his ruined pants were finally, officially obliterated, not even fit to be reused as rags or for thread, they were so covered in tar.

                Thankfully the tar on the roof was dry by the time he returned, so he didn’t have to hover out in the cold, and when he opened the hatch he called out a warning that he was nude and an explanation as to why, cringing when he heard her choke out a tearful “alright” in reply.

                The reason for her tears hit him like a sack of rocks when he floated in, and he felt his beast stir at the scent of blood, heavy and thick in the air. Her period had started, and apparently it was paining her badly if she’d been crying her eyes out for the last several hours. “Aw, shit,” he breathed as he knelt behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Sweetheart, you should have called me. I know there’s nothing I can really do about it, but I could have maybe rubbed your back or something. My mom says that ki-warmed hands work wonders for cramps.”

                “It… it’s not that,” she whimpered, hiccupping from crying so hard. “It hurts, but… but… I only have _three pads_! I don’t know what I’m going to do, Trunks! I’m going to bleed on _everything_!” She sobbed, forgetting her sadness and disappointment from earlier in favor of accepting the comfort he offered by holding her, even if he was stark naked. “I… I don’t even have any painkillers!” She continued, choking on every word as she cried into his chest.

                “You’re lucky we landed on Five, I’ve got painkillers covered,” he rumbled into her hair as he warmed his hands with his ki and slipped them up the back of her shirt, rubbing and kneading the flesh of her lower back as he thought of a way to solve the other dilemma. “I don’t know much about a woman’s time of the month,” he admitted, “but pads and stuff like that wasn’t _always_ the throw away kind, right? What did women do before that?” He asked gently.

                “M—Made them, I guess?” Usagi whimpered, her tears ebbing a little thanks to his warm hands easing the worst of her cramps. “But… but what do I make them out of? Is there a special type of cloth I need to use? I’m not wasting the furs we have.”

                “Well, what’s in your subspace? Anything you won’t wear?” He suggested. “Any extra pants for me?” He teased. “Because the ones I came with are totally destroyed after tarring the roof, and I need to wash the sweatpants.”

                Too miserable to even blush at the sight of him naked, Usagi parted from him slightly to reach under her side of the blankets and presented him with the pants she’d made him overnight, as well as a covering that wouldn’t be so ridiculously warm for while he was inside. “I can try and make some adjustments if they don’t fit,” she offered, feeling shy when he took them slowly and looked at her in grateful surprise, his eyes shining with emotion.

                “Thank you,” he said tenderly, kissing her forehead as he set the pants aside in favor of what amounted to little more than a loincloth. It covered him in back as well, though, and the panels of it were wide enough that only the sides of his thighs were exposed, covering him to his knees. “Heh… I’m not quite _that_ long,” he joked, unable to help himself, his smile gentle when she actually cracked a ghost of a tiny smirk despite her misery.

                “It feels that long whenever you have to pee first thing in the morning,” she remarked as she looked him up and down, studying her handiwork. “It looks good. The wild man thing really suits you, Trunks.” Usagi noticed for the first time how lean he’d gotten from hard work as well; he’d been bulkier before from all the muscle he’d built from fighting and training, and while he wasn’t any weaker than he’d been before, he’d definitely trimmed down. So had she, though, she’d worked harder since landing on Five than she had in her entire life, training and fighting with her Senshi included, and the couple inches of fat she always carried on her hips and thighs had melted away during the last two weeks.

                “It suits you, too,” he chuckled, noting that she’d found the new skirt he’d made her while she’d been asleep, as well as the tank top and boots. “If this thing was white, we’d match. I like it in black, though,” he assured her. “You need the white fur to keep you hidden when it starts to snow. Trust me, you’ll thank me for it once we get you some snowpants made and a hood for your coat. Nothing will be able to spot you when we go out in the winter. I don’t need the camo so much, though. Now… come on, let’s see what you’ve got in your subspace. I’ll even help you make pads if you tell me what to do.”

                “Kay,” she sniffled as she reached into her subspace and called in anything and everything that was made out of cloth.

                Trunks blinked at the towering pile of silk gowns, every one of them finer and more expensive than the last, and tucked in among them were several shirts and only two pairs of pants, one of them horribly stained with _wer’kha_ blood. “Damn… well… silk it is, then?” He inquired as he dared to draw one out, easily the most expensive, with fine white silk embroidered heavily with seed pearls, diamonds and—

                “No!” Usagi yelped, tugging it from his grasp and quickly putting it back in her subspace. “Not… not that one,” she said shakily. “That’s supposed to be my wedding dress. Someday, anyway,” she added with a hint of bitterness as she made it a point not to look at him.

                Shit… apparently not all of those tears were because of her period. He wasn’t surprised, though, he’d honestly been a bit worried by her lack of reaction to his breaking off their budding relationship. “Usa… sweetheart, if you want to talk—“

                “Don’t,” she snapped quietly. “Just… just don’t, Trunks,” she added in a whisper, her tone softening as she withdrew a silk day dress from the pile that she rarely wore and got her scissors out of her subspace. “I don’t want to talk about it… ok?”

                “That’s fine, Usa. If you ever change your mind, I’ll listen,” he promised gently, knowing that the offer sounded lame and weak in his desperation to see her happy. “I just want you to smile again,” he said desolately, overwhelmed by guilt and torn between wanting her and wanting her safe.

                “Trunks… I… I understand,” Usagi answered sadly, “but please, I don’t want to talk about it. Please stop. Come on, cut this one up into long strips while I pick another that I don’t like very much.” She handed him a second pair of scissors then and started going through her gowns, stashing away the ones that she was unable to part with due to their beauty or because they held a special memory for her, settling on a dark mourning gown buried near the bottom. “Good, it’s dark enough so I don’t have to worry about stains,” she murmured as she laid it out and started to cut, making wide, long strips that she could fold over many times.

 “These are going to be so bulky,” she finally sighed when she was through making one, standing from her seat and going to the bathroom. It was definitely time to dispose of her pad—it was nearly soaking over onto her panties—and Usagi cleaned up a bit before folding the huge swath of silk over a dozen times before it was a little wider than a pad and twice as thick. “Here goes nothing.”

“Well?” Trunks asked when she returned from the bathroom, lifting a questioning brow, aware of the funny way she was walking as she tried to adjust to the change from quilted, disposable cotton versus fine silk.

“I feel like my Senshi would be choking on the fact that I’m using Jovian silk as a pad,” she muttered. “It’s not bad, though. Softer. The disposable ones kind of… chafe,” she admitted with a blush, embarrassed to be discussing the gruesome details of such things with a male.

“Well, you _are_ wearing the _most_ expensive pad known to man,” Trunks quipped, unable to stop himself from grinning when she cracked a smile and actually let out a giggle. “You got some diamonds still sewn into it?”

“No, none on that dress,” she retorted, rolling her eyes as she sat back down and observed the nearly-finished pad he was working on. This one was wider than the one she was wearing. Longer, too. “Definitely trying that one next. I’m so paranoid that I’m going to leak through,” she admitted.

“Just go check in the bathroom every fifteen to thirty minutes,” Trunks advised. “After a day, I bet you’ll be a pro at wearing the homemade ones, and you can save the three disposables you have left for when you’re sleeping. Well, this month, anyway,” he hedged. “We’ll figure something out.”

“I should change to the stained skirt,” she realized as she started cutting more silk. “I don’t want to stain this one, too. It’s pretty, by the way. Thank you, Trunks,” she added, blushing again when she realized she hadn’t once thanked him for the new clothes he’d provided her with. “I really love the boots. I don’t think I’ve ever had shoes this comfortable in my life, not even the silk slippers that Mina bought me to go with my favorite dress.”

Feeling like they were getting back onto even ground, Trunks allowed himself to feel a little swell of pride just as he felt his beast really returning to him, groggy as it woke and purring contentedly at the sight of how Trunks had provided warm clothing for his mate.

Coloring brightly at that sound, Usagi momentarily wondered if maybe he was changing his mind—after all, he hadn’t really purred a lot since she’d woken from her three days’ nap—but decided that he was just admiring her. He _had_ admitted to wanting her, he just wouldn’t act on his desire because of his father. And she couldn’t really blame him for it since she also held her mother’s opinion in the highest regard, even though she’d decided that she would deal with her mother’s outrage in favor of grabbing love and hanging onto it as tightly as possible… but she also didn’t have to worry about Queen Serenity ripping Trunks to pieces in retaliation. Her mother wouldn’t like the idea at all, but she wasn’t racist like Prince Vegeta. She’d come around eventually once she saw how much her daughter cared for the Saiyan prince.

She hoped.

 _It doesn’t matter anyway,_ she thought sadly as she tried not to cry again at the fresh cramping in her abdomen. “Thank you,” she whispered when she felt Trunks pressing against her from behind, his purr rolling comfortingly as he warmed his whole body with his ki, his stomach pressing to her lower back and his hands lying across her stomach beneath her top.

“ _Rad’ir, atti_ ,” he suddenly whispered in her ear, tugging her to the unfinished mattress and lying down beside her when she came as he asked, their chests pressing together and his hands continuing their slow, gentle massaging of her lower back, his ki warming her from head to toe. “ _Mah’ni_ , Usa… Usa _m’yo_. _Mah’ni ih m’eh a’hir au_.”

“I don’t understand,” she said after a full minute of silence, debating whether or not to even speak, loving the way he was holding her as if she was the only thing that mattered to him in the world, pretending for just that one minute that he was hers and she was his. And in that minute, Usagi was happier than she’d ever been, tears pricking the corners of her eyes as she simply held him and let herself be held.

“My beast,” he mumbled into her hair as he wrested control from it, fiercely tossing it into the back of his mind, his heart clenching as he felt her joy through the partial bond. If only he could hold her forever and make it real, he would… but he couldn’t.

“It’s because you’re in pain,” he partly lied. Kio was rifling through all of his memories from the past four days, growing angrier and angrier with him for the way he’d practically rejected her and vowing never to take a nap again, especially after she’d fallen into a coma.

 _As mad as I am at you right now, you shouldn’t have been totally alone and going out of your mind for three and a half days,_ his beast acknowledged. _Sorry for that, boy._

 _Don’t worry about it,_ Trunks replied, grateful that Kio wasn’t deciding to take him behind the woodshed another day out of guilt for leaving him alone during one of the scariest times of his life. _I’m just glad she’s alright._ “Usa, I’m going to go get you a painkiller. Sound good?” He offered aloud.

“Yeah, thank you,” she replied even though she didn’t want him to leave just yet. She couldn’t have him and she couldn’t blame him for refusing her, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t enjoy being held by him and just pretend for a few more minutes that things were different.

That everything was perfect.

Trunks was gone after kissing her forehead, and he flew a few miles out towards the ocean, noting a thin layer of ice over a tidal pool and cringing at the grey clouds rolling in, covering the late afternoon sun. “I’d better get enough to last her the week,” he realized aloud, “because I don’t think we’ll be leaving the house for a while.”

The plant he was looking for was easy enough to find, growing amongst the scrub grass in the sand dunes, and he went about picking as many of the dried seed pods as he could, wishing he’d brought a bag as he gathered them up into the front panel of his loincloth. He was nearly finished when he heard something in the grass behind him and turned, but he relaxed when he found She coming towards him, dipping her head in greeting when she saw that he’d seen her. “You guys ready for the snow?” He asked conversationally in Saiyan as he continued to pick.

“Yes. Storm coming,” she rumbled as she tipped her head skyward. “Osa Ge is awake?”

“Yeah, she woke up last night, but now she’s bleeding. I’m getting these for her since she’s in a lot of pain.”

“A good hard mating will help her pain, Trunks,” she suggested with a chuff of amusement. “Silly male. You do know that she won’t whelp a kit from mating while she’s bleeding, right?”

“Actually, there’s still a good risk of it, She,” he informed her, choosing not to mention the real reason they weren’t fully mated. It wouldn’t do for She to know they’d lied to her the first time they’d met. “Our kind don’t have mating seasons like yours do; Usagi could get pregnant even when she’s not in heat.”

“Oh. Hm… you are a good mate to think of her, then. This winter will be hard,” She commented as she sniffed the air. “It starts soon, Trunks. You should go home.”

“Yeah, headed there now, She. You should, too. Are you guys going to be warm enough? I mean… how do you even do it when the temperatures drop so low?”

“That’s why all the clans were called in. We’ll huddle together tightly to survive the storm; kits and elders in the middle, males around them, and the biggest females on the outside. We rotate when necessary to give everyone a turn to keep warm, with the most fragile kept in the center until the end of the bad weather,” She explained. “It’s like how you and Osa Ge take turns protecting each other,” she added in amusement as she dipped her head and left.

##########################################

During the forty-five minutes that Trunks was gone, Usagi had checked her makeshift pad and was fiddling with the mini computer, looking for games of any kind to pass the time, but she found little to nothing of interest as she perused all of the programs that she hadn’t yet checked out.

“Oh, neat. A video recorder. Huh…” An idea struck her suddenly, and as she located the eye that would record her and she set it down, she wondered if her idea would wind up being a bad one in the long run. “Nah, a video journal will keep me from getting bored and it’ll be something to show Rei when I come home. I know she’ll get a kick out of it, at least, especially seeing me in this wild woman get-up.”

After all of the events of the day, turning on that recorder and recounting every little thing that had happened during three weeks cheered her up even more than pretending for a minute that Trunks loved her, and towards the end of telling the story, Usagi found herself giggling as she addressed Rei directly while showing off her boots. “Trunks made them for me, just like the skirt and the top! They’re just perfect, don’t you think!? He’s so kind to me,” she continued, her smile fading some as she sighed longingly. “I just… I just wish that he… forget it, it’s pointless to hope, and I know you’d tell me to stop moping over a guy, Rei. I just wish things could be different,” she finished in a whisper, unable to stop herself from hoping for more with the Saiyan prince.

“I think I’m falling in love with him,” she acknowledged in rush, suddenly feeling a million times better for saying it aloud. “Wow, I think I’ll keep making these videos… it kind of felt good to get all of this off my chest. Poor Rei, you’re going to have so much video to watch when we finally get rescued,” she chuckled. “Think of it as a confessional booth for me, and if I bore you when you finally watch these, you can always fast forward. Heh, I bet you’re wishing right now that you had a remote that worked on me, don’t you!?” She laughed.

“It felt so good to say it, though,” she repeated wistfully. “I know I can’t say it to him because he might feel obligated or something… or worse yet, he’ll start avoiding me like the plague once the storm’s over. And I don’t think I’d survive that, honestly… I’d rather have him as a friend if I can’t have him any other way. Huh, I guess I _do_ love him, then, don’t I? If I’m willing to be unselfish about it? Holy shit, I’m growing up a little,” Usagi finished with a little sarcastic snort, her eyes rolling towards the ceiling when she heard Trunks land. “That’s it for now,” she decided as she shut the computer and stowed it away. “I’ll do more the next time he goes out for wood or something.”

############################################

Trunks made it back just as the wind began to pick up and told Usagi to just stay put for a minute before flying back out to stack copious amounts of wood near the hatch, enough for several days even if they had to burn twice the amount every hour to keep the small room warm. “It’s starting,” he told her once he’d dropped back in and grabbed the pot in the bathroom to dump it over the side of the roof.

“Guess we’ll get a lot of sewing and reading done,” Usagi replied as she turned a pod around in her hands and studied it. “This is a painkiller?”

“Yes. It’s very strong and very addictive, though, so you have to promise me that you won’t take it more than I tell you is safe,” Trunks answered as he broke one open and shook out a little handful of seeds no bigger than BBs. “Here,” he offered, holding out the handful, sympathetically watching her rub at her belly with one hand and her back with the other. “Chewing them up’s the fastest way, but I’ll warn you that— phhhht hahahaha I tried to tell you!” He laughed when she made a disgusted face, already chewing them up before he could finish his sentence.

“Oh gods, they’re so **_bitter_**!” She choked out as she kept chewing, gratefully taking a swig of creek water from a bottle that Trunks offered her from the stash against the wall. “Ugh… how that taste could possibly be addictive is beyond me!”

“Trust me, they are if they’re taken too much or for too long,” Trunks replied gravely as he thought of warriors that had gotten addicted to the seeds.

“That bad?” She asked seriously. “Maybe I should have just powered through the pain.”

“It’s just that I’ve seen warriors executed because they couldn’t kick the habit, that’s all,” Trunks told her with a little shrug. “It’s the main reason I’ve only taken them a couple of times—what? What’s that face for, sweetheart? Need some more water?”

“You execute people for having a drug habit?” Usagi asked in horror. “What in the hell is _wrong_ with you!?”

“Um… are you seriously judging my culture, Usa?” Trunks countered heatedly. “I’ll have you know that an addiction can put an entire squad at risk! Even my Uncle Turles has the damned sense not to let his drinking get in the way of his responsibility to his men, so anyone that’s given a chance to get clean and goes back to it only has themselves to blame!”

“But… but… they can’t just find other jobs? I mean, surely not all Saiyans have to be warriors?” She asked soberly, fiddling with the fur beneath her in embarrassment as she realized that he hadn’t once judged her people for any of the things she’d told him about. Lunarians were strange and frivolous to him, but not once had he judged, even when he thought that some of the stuff they did was ridiculous—especially when it came to how they wasted food. “Do you really have to kill them?”

“The jobs in food production and farming are for people that can’t fight, Usagi, and since there’s a lot more of those people than you think, it would be pretty awful to put one of them out of a job because we gave it to someone who couldn’t get their shit together. Saiyan warriors are trained from birth to fight, to act as a unit with their squad. Putting your own debilitating addiction first and being high during fights isn’t tolerated. You’re given a chance to get clean and stay clean. If you get addicted again, your squad leader puts you down. It’s better than a squad of ten to twenty others getting destroyed because one asshole put his problems before everyone else’s lives.”

The fact that they were given a chance and not executed the first time gave her some solace, and Usagi sighed and nodded. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to judge, Trunks. Your people just seem so _brutal_ sometimes. It’s hard for me to understand.”

“It’s ok. You know that I can’t comprehend how you guys just throw away leftovers or slightly stale food… and I still don’t understand the point of holding so many parties and all the dancing and hugging and touchy-feeling stuff between people that don’t want to fuck each other,” he chuckled.

“Because it’s nice,” Usagi said, shrugging as she recalled their previous discussion about it. “It’s fun. I could teach you, if you like?” She offered, drawing a music box out of her subspace.

“Um… no,” he snorted, “I don’t think dancing’s my thing.”

“Afraid you’ll like it?” Usagi teased as she wound the box up, sat it down and stood. “Or are you scared that the great Saiyan prince will finally suck at something that’s so easy a Solarian could do it?”

“I’m sure it’s not any harder than doing kata, but no. I think I’ll pass, Usa. It’s not exactly useful.”

“Neither’s that thing around neck, but you seem to like it a lot… unless you were lying to me about that.”

“I wasn’t! I _do_ like it a lot. And sure, it isn’t useful, but… oh _fine_ ,” Trunks grumped, climbing to his feet and going over to where she was standing beside the bed. “But I swear to Dra if you laugh at me…”

“Oh, I won’t laugh at you, Trunks,” Usa giggled, sighing as she felt the pain from the cramps starting to melt away. “And if I do, you can laugh at me when you teach me how to fly and I fail miserably. Now… hear the music? We’ll start simple. Just shift your feet back and forth to the beat—good. Put your hands on my waist, pull me close, and I put my hands on your shoulders. Trunks, you have to keep moving your feet,” she laughed when he stopped the moment he was holding her.

“Oh. Sorry.” He immediately complied, and while he thought that this whole thing was beyond stupid, he had to admit that it felt nice having her in his arms, swaying rhythmically back and forth with her while she rested against him trustingly, her hands linked around his shoulders and his wound tightly around her lower back. “How long do we do this? Is there a time limit?”

“Until the music stops, silly,” she snorted, rolling her eyes as she listened to his heart beating beneath her ear. “Why? Are you that desperate to stop touching me?”

He didn’t answer, he only sighed into her hair and kept moving, his fingers caressing the bare gap between her skirt and top in time with the music, his purr stuttering to life when he felt her press a brief kiss to his chest. “This isn’t so bad,” he finally rumbled after a couple minutes of silence, smiling down at her when she turned her eyes up to his and he found hers full of suppressed emotion, slightly glazed from the painkillers he’d given her. The sight of all of that emotion nearly broke him, and before he knew what was happening, his forehead was resting against hers and their breaths were mingling in the air, their lips a mere inch from each other’s. “Usagi, I… damn it,” he sighed. “I just—“

“I know, Trunks. It’s ok,” she replied softly, understanding laced with sadness in her tone.

The sound of her heart breaking was what did him in, and Trunks was kissing her before he could think better of it, pushing every ounce of emotion he felt for her into it, his fingers threading in her hair as her lips parted for his tongue.

The slow, tender kiss made Usagi tremble, and it took every bit of willpower she had not to tug him to the bed, but she somehow managed to pull back when it grew heated and passionate, her hands shaking as she shook her head and stepped out of his arms. “You said it yourself, Trunks… we can’t,” she whispered. “So please… please don’t. Not unless you mean to finish what you start.”

“You’re right,” he sighed as he backed away to give her some space. “And I’m sorry. I only meant… I just… I’m sorry,” he finished lamely, unsure how to say what he wanted to say. He just wanted to comfort her somehow, to show her that he wanted her despite it all, that his refusal to bed her wasn’t in any way _her_ fault. “I won’t do it again.”

“Good,” she answered, though she didn’t sound too happy about it as she put her music box away and went to the fireplace, where she started cooking and cutting meat and she retrieved the cake she’d meant for his birthday.

“Please don’t be mad at me,” Trunks rumbled from beside her as he knelt. “I didn’t mean to upset you, Usa.”

“I know you didn’t, Trunks.” She knew exactly what he’d been trying to do, she could feel his intentions through the bond even though her mark was healing and the link between them was closing slowly by the hour. “I just can’t do things part of the way. If you want me, then just… take me,” she told him softly, blushing hotly at her choice of words. “There can’t be an in between for me.”

With his beast railing at him to pull her close and kiss the hell out of her and take her just as she’d told him to, Trunks was visibly shaking as he scooted a couple feet away, his eyes flickering back and forth from blue to green as he warred with his instincts. “I… I’m sorry,” he choked out. “Usa, I need to—“

“I’ve got you,” she assured him as she fearlessly hugged him and filled him with her light, feeling him sag immediately, the ki field that had started to expand around him no longer crackling with energy. “And Kio, behave,” she added gently, “I don’t want _anything_ from either of you unless you’re both in agreement. Besides… I’m bleeding anyway, remember?” She finished, her face still red even though her inhibitions were lower than ever thanks to the pain killers.

“The boy’s a fucking idiot,” his beast grumped as it continued to usurp control. Her light was calming it, yes, but it was still in charge as it mentally elbowed Trunks in the face whenever the prince tried to take over again. “If our father touches a hair on your gorgeous, perfect head, I’ll rip his gods damned throat out and make him eat it. Fuck his opinion, and fuck _him_. I should have kicked his ass years ago as soon as we matched his power level; the asshole stopped training us then because he didn’t want us to surpass him.”

“Seriously?” Usagi asked, blinking slowly, feeling groggy suddenly as the seeds really started to kick in. “He stopped training you because he didn’t want you to be stronger than him? Sounds like he’s got a complex.”

“And when Uncle Kakarot offered to take over, Father flipped his shit,” Trunks added once he finally wrested control away from Kio, thanking the gods that he hadn’t said a word about the pull.

 _What would be the fucking point?_ His beast retorted. _She wants us and she’s willing to mate us. Telling her about the pull would only upset her. It’s **you** that needs to grow a damn pair and accept what’s between us, **not** her. _

Sensing that Trunks was going through some inner turmoil, Usagi parted from him to give him his space while she tended to their supper, blinking slowly and finding herself enjoying the high from the seeds. No wonder people got addicted to these things; she felt amazing! “Trunks?” She finally asked, “why don’t you just train here while we wait? We’re going to be here awhile, right? And no one’s stopping you, least of all me.”

Once he could pick his jaw up from the floor, Trunks stared at her for a long moment before grinning at his own stupidity. “You’re a genius!”

“Heh, first time I’ve ever heard _that_ ,” she snorted, breaking down into a giggle fit due to her inebriated state and the thought of how her Senshi would have reacted to hearing those words directed at her. “Oh gods, Rei would tell you you’re mental!”

The sound of Trunks’s hands smacking against the wood on either side of her head silenced her, and Usagi opened her eyes to find him looming over her, both his hands resting near her ears, a serious look on his face. “Me telling you that you’re smart isn’t a joke, Usa. I’m serious. And you should stop letting your friends degrade you just because you’re not the same as them. You _are_ smart, you just think about things differently than other people, and most of the time your way of thinking is better.”

Being thought of as stupid had always been a sore spot for Usagi, but she’d learned to laugh about it over the years because she knew her Senshi didn’t truly mean any harm… but hearing Trunks take up for her warmed her from head to toe and filled her eyes with grateful tears. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“You’re welcome,” he rumbled, pressing his lips to the crescent on her forehead before tugging her back up. “And you _are_ a genius. I should have been training a couple hours a night since we landed but I honestly hadn’t given it a thought. I’ll start as soon as the storm clears. Heh… by the time rescue comes, I’ll be a level two Legendary like Uncle Kakarot and Uncle Broly, and my father can suck my cock. Er um… sorry, excuse the language,” he added quickly when she turned bright red and her eyes widened at the level of his swearing.

“No, um…” Usagi coughed to clear her throat and just shook her head as she doled out his steaks onto a platter and handed it over. “You’re fine, it’s just I’ve only ever heard Mako talk like that. She’s on a totally different playing field than we are when it comes to filthy language. Kind of impressive sometimes, to be honest,” she finished thoughtfully as she set her own plate aside and reached for the cake, smiling when Trunks’s eyes hit his hairline.

He hadn’t even noticed the damned thing the entire time, and when Usagi burst into a rushed, embarrassed version of Happy Birthday, Trunks found himself chuckling and smiling in return, touched that she would make such an effort on his behalf. “You didn’t have to do this, Usa, but I really appreciate it.”

“Well, if we’re still stuck here in June, I expect no less from you,” she teased as she pulled his gift out of her subspace. “Ta da! They match the necklace, I hope you like them!”

Truth be told, Trunks _did_ like them, and as he took the fur armbands in hand and admired how she’d managed to attach so many teeth to them, his chest stuttered out a happy purr. “Never got a birthday present before. They’re great, Usa! They remind me of the bands my Uncle Raditz wears. Here, help me put them on and we can complete the wild Saiyan look.”

Thanks to the painkillers, it wasn’t hard at all for Usagi to completely shove aside the constant tension between them in favor of just being happy, and she beamed as she fastened her gift to him on his upper arms, whipping out her polaroid and snapping a shot of him before he could voice a protest. “That one’s going on the wall! Heh… you know,” she mused as she waved the picture to help it develop, “we can totally decorate the walls in photos. We should get one of She the next time we see her; I bet she’ll trip when she sees her picture for the first time!”

Trunks could only chuckle at her infectious happiness and nod, secretly glad that she hadn’t asked him for the picture he’d taken of her right before he’d left to look for rescue. That one was his, and he wasn’t giving it up, even for the wall. He could take a few more of her for the wall, sure, he thought as he watched her find a thumbtack in her subspace and she pinned the photo of him to the wall. But that first one would always be under his pillow—where it was right then—or in his pocket.

“Come on, sweetheart, let’s eat, then I’ll take one of you in your new clothes for you to hang next to mine.” He carved the cake then and cut them each generous slices, and when Usagi’s first bite was of the cake and not the meat, he snorted in amusement even though he really couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t like they got a whole lot of sugar lately, and a giant chocolate cake was like a piece of heaven after eating nothing but meat, nuts and berries for weeks. “Fuck it,” he decided as he swallowed his first bite of steak and switched to the rich, chocolatey goodness, immediately setting his plate to the side.

Usagi wasn’t sure what he was doing at first, but when he groaned loudly as he chewed and his eyes rolled back, she burst into hysterical laughter just as he dramatically faceplanted onto the bed, twitched, flopped, then went still. “That was exactly my reaction!” She howled. “I just didn’t want you to think I was being an idiot!”

“Please tell me you won’t think I’m a horrible gluttonous pig when I ask for a second slice,” Trunks said, grinning as he sat back up and took another bite, groaning once more as the double chocolate icing hit his tastebuds.

“Hell no, I’m getting a second piece, too!” She giggled. “Now eat your steak, too, or you’ll get a tummy ache!” She ordered, having already switched to the meat—she’d taken two bites of the cake, yeah, but she knew better than most what would happen if they gorged only on sugar.

“ _G’in, **Ma**_.”

“You know, I can tell when you’re being a smartass in _any_ language, Trunks,” Usagi reminded him wryly as she tapped her healing shoulder. “And tell me while we eat… you said you’ve never gotten a birthday present? Not even a little one? I mean… your mom’s Solarian, so I’d think she’d keep to some of our traditions.”

“For my sister, yeah, but Father insisted that I be raised one hundred percent Saiyan since I’m going to be king one day,” he sighed. “His intentions were actually good, believe it or not—he just wanted me to be a good king. He’s not all bad,” the prince added softly, “just… mostly bad, I guess. If you saw him with Bra, you’d think he was father of the year, honestly. Anyways, Saiyans don’t get gifts for their birthdays. We actually _give_ gifts to our mothers, sort of as a thank you for bringing us into the world and then showing _further_ gratitude that they didn’t remove us from it when we hit puberty.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet, Trunks. What do you get Aunt Bulma for your birthday? Flowers or something?” Usagi asked as she devoured her steak.

“Actually, I brought her a _wer’kha_ fur last year. Draping any female in _wer’kha_ fur is the greatest sign of love you can ever—er, um…”

Usagi couldn’t help but stroke a hand over the fur of her skirt and smile, pretending not to notice the way Trunks was blushing brightly at his own words and staring at his plate in embarrassment. “So, do Saiyans at least celebrate the Solstice?” She asked as if she didn’t even notice his blush, changing the subject to be polite.

“Nah, we have different holidays,” he said, still refusing to look up at the woman he’d draped head to toe in the finest, rarest fur in the galaxy, all too aware of how she’d done the same to him. By all rights, they weren’t just courting, they were already mated when you considered how much _wer’kha_ fur they’d clothed each other in, even if they hadn’t consummated the union yet. _I need to finish those earrings I was making for her, they’d look perfect on her,_ he thought as he chewed his steak, no longer tasting it as he thought.

“What kind of holidays?” Usagi pressed. “Seriously, I’d really love to know more about your culture, Trunks. Gods know I’ve already yacked your ear off about mine.”

“The full moon is always a holiday since none of us can really get any work done while it’s out,” he said with a shrug. “Most people stay inside, but all of the teenagers get brave and go out and let their hormones run amuck. I never got to do that, though, Father always made me stay inside. He didn’t want me accidentally mating with someone,” he added by way of explanation, filled with gratitude that the full moon had come and gone while she’d been unconscious.

“Oh, well I guess that’s understandable. Anything else?”

“We also celebrate the eclipses and the solar switch that happens every nine years, but that’s going really in-depth into our pantheon of gods. Maybe I’ll tell you another time?”

“Why not now?” Usagi asked. “There’s a storm blowing and we’re stuck inside. In fact,” she added with a smile, “we’ll take turns. You tell me a story tonight, and I’ll tell you a story tomorrow night.”

“Alright,” Trunks sighed, pretending not to be immensely pleased by her interest in his culture. “I’ll tell you a story, but only if we get to destroy the whole cake before bed.”

“Done.”


	13. Chapter 13

_Long, long ago, when the world was created, there was only the ground, the sky… and the gods. The gods lived in the heavens, overseeing the life they’d created on the little dirtball they’d favored, but they weren’t happy. In fact, they were split. The gods Sh and Ta— the goddess of life and the god of death— were at war with each other. Now that there was life on the little planet they’d created, they couldn’t stop fighting over who would live and who would die. Worse yet, they were rivals for the favor of the moon goddess, Cha._

“Oh! A moon goddess!? Like me and my mom!?”

                “You wanna hear this story or not, Usa?”

                “Oh, sorry! I’ll be quiet!”

                “As I was saying…”

                _They were rivals for the favor of the moon goddess, who they only saw once in a very long while, during the solar eclipses. Sh and Ta were the sun gods that warmed the little planet, so hot it could kill you during the drought season, and delightfully warm during the season of plenty._

_The rivalry continued for decades, and the god and goddess of our suns vied for Cha’s affections whenever they would see her, always separately whenever her path happened to cross one of theirs during an eclipse._

_But then something happened—_

_“_ What!? What happened!?” Usagi exclaimed excitedly, leaning forward with wide eyes.

                “I would have already told you if you’d just stay quiet,” Trunks chuckled. “Maybe I’ll just tell you the rest another night.”

                “Nonono! I’m sorry! Not another word out of me, I promise!”

                “Got any tape in your subspace?” He wondered aloud.

                “Yeah, sure? Why?”

                “Because I can use it on your mouth if you don’t shut up,” he teased, laughing when she smacked his arm. “Ahem… but then something happened…”

                _For the first time ever, there was a full eclipse of both suns and the moon together. Sh and Ta were enraged to discover that Cha had fallen in love with them both, and they were driven mad with jealousy as they launched themselves at one another, locked in battle. The battle and the eclipse both lasted for weeks, darkening the little planet as the gods of life and death tried their very best to destroy one another, while Cha pleaded with them both to stop such madness, that she loved them both equally and never wanted them to fight over her._

_After weeks of bloodshed, neither Sh nor Ta had given an inch, and Cha had begun to despair for both of the gods she loved dearly. Thinking that she could stop them by putting herself in the middle, she threw herself between them just as they both struck, but neither of them could stop in time. They both impaled her upon their swords and she fell dead at their feet, a smile on her face because she knew that they would at last stop fighting each other._

_Both gods were overcome by despair, and their cries of grief were heard throughout the cosmos. Sh tried in vain to bring back her only love, but she’d depleted most of her power from fighting Ta, and Ta, being a god of destruction, could do nothing for Cha except weep over her body, beautiful even in death, swearing to the heavens that he would do anything to bring her back, even if it meant giving his own life._

_And for once in their lives, Sh and Ta agreed on something. Both of them were willing to give their very identities to save Cha, and with their combined powers they just might be able to resurrect her. So they embraced as brother and sister and became one god, Dra, never to separate again, permanently joined even though they became the god of two suns, forever the god of both life and death and light._

_With both powers of life and death at Dra’s disposal, he was able to heal Cha and breathe life into her again, and when she awoke she saw both Sh and Ta in him and knew what had happened while she had been dead. She was moved by such a show of love and devotion to her and mated with Dra, and from them the Saiyan race was born. To this day every Saiyan is made up of two entities, and is swayed and transformed by the moon, just like Dra, and like Cha, we Saiyans are fiercely loyal to our mates and would readily die for them._

“Can I clap now?” Usagi asked, beaming when he went silent for a long moment.

                “Sure,” Trunks snorted, amused by her excited applause. “You got your story, are you happy?”

                “It’s even better than our creation story! It was so romantic, Trunks! I never expected your people to have such a wonderful love story in your religion, I thought it’d all just be blood and guts! Er… no offense,” she added sheepishly.

                “Nah, you’re good. My father tells it differently and downplays the love story and makes a huge deal out of the battle, giving a blow by blow description of the fight and even acting out some of it. It’s entertaining, at least. _Ja’ja’ta_ says that you can tell a warrior’s personality by the way he tells Cha’s story… I tell it just like he does, actually,” Trunks confessed. “Next time I’ll tell you why the _wer’kha_ ’s pelt is so highly valued as a mating gift and why we face them as equals in battle, sound good?”

                “You can’t tell me the story now?” Usagi asked, not above breaking out the puppy dog eyes, letting her bottom lip quiver as she begging him silently. “ _Please_ , Trunks?”

                Her answer came in the form of a flash, and Usagi blinked when Trunks grinned and shook a polaroid photo in front of her face. “Shame on you for begging for a story when it’s your turn to tell one,” he snickered. “Now your shame face is captured for all time and I’m going to hang it on the wall.”

                “Oh, fine, what story do you want to hear? Like I said, our creation myth isn’t nearly as interesting as yours,” Usagi said as she went into the bathroom to change her pad.

                “I want to know the story behind you and Endymion,” Trunks said suddenly, surprising himself. His beast hadn’t said that, either, it had been one hundred percent him, and he’d blurted out one of the things about her he’d been curious about for over a week. He wasn’t surprised to find her sad when she returned, and immediately tried to take back his request, waving a hand between them to silence her when she opened her mouth. “No, that’s awfully personal, I’m sorry. I’ll tell the _wer’kha_ story, ok?”

                “No,” Usagi assured him gently as she took her seat, her lips twitching up when he offered her another piece of chocolate cake. “I don’t mind telling the story, Trunks. It’s just sad, that’s all.”

                “Why is it sad?” Trunks asked. “I mean… I thought you were both totally in love with each other.”

                “That’s what Momma would believe, but it’s far from the truth,” she sighed wearily. “I used to go to Earth to spy on him, and I thought I was in love for a very long time, but… then he opened his mouth. Sorry, I shouldn’t be so glib about it, he just pisses me off so bad when he talks down to me! He’s such an asshole! He makes fun of my hair and he’s called me stupid more than once, and then there was the one time when I said something smart back at him and…”

                The troubled look in her eyes was all Trunks needed to see, and he slid closer to tip her chin up and look her in the eyes. “He hit you?” He asked quietly, his voice full of the dangerous promise of retribution on her behalf the moment they were rescued. Oh yes, he was going to have a little talk with Endymion, prince to prince… and in private, where no one could hear the other man’s screams of terror.

                “No,” Usagi said quickly. “No, he really didn’t, it’s just… he wanted to. I could tell that he was thinking about it, that it was his first reaction. His hand pulled back and I was ready for it to happen, but Mako walked in at the last second and he acted as if nothing had happened, smiling and kind again, just like he always is in front of everyone else,” she finished quietly, looking down again in shame. “I should have told them. Mako questioned me extensively about it and I know she told the other girls because Rei said she’d burn him alive if he ever hurt me, but I denied it. I was scared,” Usagi whispered in humiliation. “I was afraid no one would believe me if I told them and that he would hurt me when he found out. You’re the only person I’ve ever told, Trunks. Please don’t tell anyone when we get back?”

                “I won’t,” he growled, “I’ll handle it myself. And if he ever lays a finger on you, I’ll make him bleed out slowly and then present you with the body.”

                Knowing that he was deadly serious and that absolutely nothing she could say would change his mind, Usagi just prayed that Endymion had gotten kinder and that her absence had made him miss her so much that he’d become the kind man that she knew he could be. Because when she returned to the moon, she knew she would have to marry him to make her mother happy… unless Trunks changed his mind. And if that was the case, then her mother was just going to have to learn to understand. “I hope you’re never forced to do such a thing, Trunks… but thank you for being my friend,” Usagi said gratefully, giving the hand that was grasping hers tightly a squeeze.

                _I’d be more than that if I could, sweetheart,_ he thought as he saw the barely banked love for him shining in her eyes, the enormity and purity of it chipping away at his resolve. “I will _always_ be your friend, Usagi _m’yo_. Always. _Fee_ , _cril_?”

                “Always,” Usagi said, confirming that she understood as she wrapped her arms around him and relaxed at the feeling of him returning the tight embrace, resting her head on his bare shoulder and loving the way her was nuzzling hers, right where he’d marked her.

                “Tell me,” he murmured once he’d gotten control of his beast, which had been tempting him to sink his teeth into the creamy skin just below her top, “after everything your mother went through with Alaric, why in the gods’ names is she making you marry him if you don’t want to?”

                “She was so happy thinking that I was in love that I didn’t have it in me to disappoint her,” Usagi admitted. “I’d never seen Momma so happy before, Trunks. I just couldn’t bring myself to tell her that he’s mean, that I think he’ll hurt me one day if I say the wrong thing. If I’d known about my father… I think I might have told her. Seeing me hurt by a man would have hurt her more than me breaking it off with Endymion after what she’s been through. I think I was also hoping that she’d notice and end the engagement herself when she realized that I’d never kissed him… but she just told me what a good girl I was to save everything for marriage.”

                Resting his forehead against hers, Trunks was fighting the urge to do just that, the reminder that he was her very first kiss warming him from head to toe and making him ache for another. But he managed to fight down his desire as he simply held her, thanking the gods that she’d done the same even as their breath mingled in the two inches between their lips. “You are a good girl,” Trunks whispered, his smile genuine as he stroked the back of his hand down her cheek. “A good woman. The best I’ve ever met, Usagi. And you deserve so much better than any man can offer you. Now… I think we should turn in for the night,” he finished with a kiss to the tip of her nose. “I’ll get the candles and stoke the fire while you change.”

                While she ached to feel his lips on hers again and had hoped that he would give in to the building desire between them, Usagi was somewhat relieved that he hadn’t, only for him to change his mind for a millionth time and back out again. “Thanks, Trunks.” She moved to her side of the bed then and stripped out of her furs without a second thought, unaware that he was peeking and wishing that things were different for the millionth time since he’d met her, changing into her nightgown quickly and finally snuggling down under the furs and the half-finished mattress. “I’ll stuff the rest of it in the morning, promise. Sorry that I got sidetracked by my cramps.”

                “Eh, don’t worry about it,” Trunks assured her, blushing when he undressed and she didn’t look away, gazing at her for a long moment as he held still and she openly admired his muscled body, finally locking her blue eyes with his. “What?” He asked softly, his heart racing at the feel of the pull when she didn’t break eye contact.

                “Nothing,” Usa whispered, unable to take her eyes off of him even when he settled down beside her and covered up. “It’s just… I… I was wondering…” When he arched an eyebrow and waited for her to finish the question, Usagi finally looked away, removing the combs he’d made her and setting them aside. “You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen, Trunks, but you’ve never mentioned a girlfriend or anything. Is there anyone for you back home like there is for me? Someone you’re supposed to marry?”

                His voice was a lot steadier than he thought it would be when he answered. “No,” he replied as he laid down and beckoned her over, knowing that she wouldn’t come to him and huddle up for warmth unless he invited her—not with her bleeding, and not after everything that had happened between them that day. “I told myself a long time ago that I would wait for the pull. That I’d let Fate lead the right woman to me.”

                So, that was the real reason he didn’t want her, Usagi realized. She could hardly fault him for it, though, for wanting to wait for his perfect match, for the woman that he was truly meant to be with. Strangely enough, that was a lot easier for her to understand than anything else he’d told her so far, and she found herself smiling against his chest as she rested her head on it. “I don’t blame you, Trunks. If my people had something like the pull, I don’t think I’d be able to settle for less than destiny, either. True love is definitely something worth waiting for.”

                _So glad the irony isn’t lost on you, boy,_ Kio huffed, vowing to smack Trunks around if he ever got a chance to physically do it as he heard the pain in Usagi’s voice that she was trying and failing to hide.

 _It’s going to be a very long week,_ was all Trunks could manage as he wondered if he’d break during the storm while he was cooped up inside with the gorgeous blonde that he was falling in love with.

#############################################

                “Alright, it’s your turn,” Usagi said firmly as she sat down on the bed and smoothed her skirt out over her legs.

                “My turn for what?” Trunks asked innocently, his eyes wide and unassuming as she narrowed hers and stared him down.

                “You know damn well what I’m talking about Trunks Vegeta Briefs. I told you the story about how my mother was made three nights ago and you pussied out and went to sleep without telling me a story in return,” Usagi huffed. “And then last night we were busy putting all of the meat out in the snow and I let you go to sleep without telling me a story, and the night before that we both dozed off. I want the _wer’kha_ story,” she elaborated, barely keeping herself from grinning when she leaned in close and he feigned a fearful cringe. “And I want it _now_ , Trunks,” she whispered malevolently.

                _Oh, if only she’d ask us for sex in that same tone of voice,_ his beast lamented.

                _Shuddup._ “Fine, fine! Sit down and I’ll tell you the stupid story!” He snorted when Usagi moved fast and obediently sat, her attention totally focused on him, her legs folded in front of her like she was a little kid waiting for a teacher to tell a story in class. “Ok, here goes…”

                _Long ago, when Cha was still young and Sh and Ta were still separately wooing her, Ta gifted Cha with a pack of his very own hounds, straight from the bowels of Hell, with the intention of making them her guardians. Their fur was as black as night and they were the fiercest animals the gods had ever seen, snapping and clawing and swinging their tail barbs about, trying their best to kill anything and everything in sight._

_Not Cha, though. Cha, in her infinite goodness, was the one creature they could never bring themselves to harm, and as they grew as fond of her as Ta was, they protected her fiercely. Their efforts were so effective that even Sh or Ta couldn’t come to visit the moon goddess. This proved to be a problem for Cha since none of the gods could even approach her, so Cha sat down with the largest of the pack and gifted her with intelligence and reasoning, creating the very first matriarch._

_She explained to the matriarch, Sh’ch, that she loved her pack’s company but ached for the companionship of her own kind, and Sh’ch understood and explained it to the first_ wer’kha _clan, whom she passed her blessing of near-sentience on to._

 _Without Sh’ch speaking to her clan, the Saiyan race would have never been born, since Sh and Ta would not have been able to become Dra and mate with Cha, so we Saiyans show the_ wer’kha _the utmost respect in combat by fighting them fairly. And since Sh’ch gifted her pelt to her mistress upon her death, the_ wer’kha _’s pelt is highly prized among the Saiyans as the raiment of the moon goddess and a symbol of devotion and loyalty._

“I have cat guardians, too!” Usagi exclaimed, practically vibrating in place with excitement. “Sure, they’re smaller, but they can turn into Lunarian forms when they want, and they’re great friends!”

                “Really?” Trunks asked in surprise.

                “Yeah, Luna and Artemis! I already told you all about them, silly,” Usagi chuckled. “What, you thought that a woman was mad at me for not giving her a bowl of cream before bed?”

                Recalling the story and how odd he’d thought it was at the time, Trunks burst into laughter and nodded. “I did, but I thought it was just some crazy Lunarian custom!”

                “No!” Usagi howled, “Luna and Artemis are cats! Adorable housecats that can talk!”

                “Did they come from Hell, too?” Trunks wondered aloud, still snickering at the mental image of a grown woman kneeling to drink from a bowl of cream.

                “Nah, they’re from the planet Mau. They left their homeworld to become my guardians not too long after I was born. I’m totally telling this story to Luna when I get back, too, and asking her if she can get as huge as She. She probably can’t, but wouldn’t that be awesome? A ten-foot bodyguard at all times!”

                “You know… I wonder if that’s why She’s taken to protecting you,” Trunks rumbled thoughtfully. “Because you’re a moon goddess and her kind served Cha thousands of years ago… it’s kind of scary to think of all the similarities,” he continued softly as he turned to the fireplace and shoved some wood in, hoping that the storm would die down enough for him to clean it out and dump the ashes out in the snow.

                They’d been locked in for four days and had only popped the hatch once a day to empty the waste pot and one other time to store the meat up top when Usagi worried aloud about him having enough food should anything happen to her. Being cooped up in such close quarters had done marvelous things for how close they were, but it was getting difficult for Trunks to not act on all of the near-kisses they’d had since the blizzard had started.

                There had been dozens of them, dozens of times where they’d been nose to nose and a hair’s breadth away from pressing their mouths to each other’s, and even though she was bleeding, Trunks could smell her arousal perfuming the air whenever a close encounter occurred, the scent setting off his beast and nearly breaking his resolve.

                Now her bleeding was nearly finished and Trunks found himself salivating at times, images of them tangled together in front of the fire flashing through his mind whenever his beast decided to fuck with his head.

                “Heh… does that make you Dra?” Usagi asked suddenly, her lips twitching up in a teasing smile when he shot her a look.

                “Usagi… that’s blasphemy, you know,” Trunks countered with mock seriousness. “The priests back home would lock you up or execute you for saying something like that, especially since they seem to think that Broly is a true son of Dra. What?” He asked when she made a face.

                “No, I’d much rather not mate with Broly,” Usagi rambled conversationally as she worked on some pants for herself for when they finally went outside, her half-finished snow shoes sitting to the side. “He’s handsome, but Minako once said something about sticking your dick in crazy, and I think that applied to letting crazy stick its dick in you, too. Mina’s not really one to talk, though, since she’s plenty crazy… huh, maybe we should introduce her to Broly when we get back?”

                Her words were spoken with nonchalance that Trunks couldn’t stop himself from erupting into hysterical laughter, sitting down hard beside her and wrapping his arms around her as he laughed into her shoulder. “You know what? We should!” He howled. “We should pair them all up, and if they don’t like it, we can drop them on a deserted planet and make them suffer!”

                “Turles and Rei,” Usagi giggled. “I’d pay good money to watch that fight.”

                “I was talking about sex, not fighting, sweetheart,” Trunks snorted, rolling his eyes.

                “So was I,” Usagi replied, still laughing. “If you think that Rei’s going to sleep with anyone without a fight, you’re sorely mistaken!”

                “Nah, they’d just kill each other, then. More like Rei and Uncle Kakarot. Or Goten. Someone with her temper needs someone sweet and nice to soothe it. And patient… very, very patient,” Trunks mused aloud. “Nappa?” He asked after a minute of silence where they just grinned, both of them imagining Rei’s reaction when she discovered that they’d hooked her up with a Saiyan before they’d even left Five.

                “Hotaru… no, Haruka would just kill him for even looking at her. Ami. Definitely Ami for Nappa, she’s—what? What did I say?” Usagi asked when Trunks roared with laughter, falling over onto the bed.

                “I was JOKING!”

                “Oh… well, I wasn’t. Ami’s kind and very quiet and insanely smart. From what you’ve told me, Nappa can be a bit slow at times, so I thought they’d balance each other out,” Usagi said seriously. “Now your turn, Trunks… Makoto.”

                Ok, she was being serious with this little game? Fine, he could play. “Bardock,” he said slowly, nodding after another moment of thought. “Yeah, Bardock. He needs a good woman that can take care of him, but who won’t tolerate his bullshit. Makoto would definitely set him straight… she’d probably zap him when he’s bad and give him a cookie when he’s good.”

                “Hey, Trunks…?” Usagi asked curiously. “I think we should seriously do something about my mother and your grandfather when we get home. What do you think?”

                “I think I’ll get started on the most violent Saiyan poetry possible right now and slip it into your mother’s pocket when I finally meet her. I’ll sign my grandfather’s name, of course,” he added when Usagi lifted an incredulous eyebrow, “and she’ll be so impressed by the exquisite violence of it that she’ll run to his bed and give you a brother or sister in a few months.”

                “Heh… Trunks, you do realize that if they get together, that makes you my nephew?” Usagi snickered.

                “Welcome to Vegeta-sei, Usa _m’yo_. Where the family trees rarely fork, and when they do it’s because we mated someone that wasn’t Saiyan.”


	14. Chapter 14

“Usa!” Trunks called from up top as she bundled herself up into her long, thick, double-sided with fur coat and drew the deep hood over her head.

                Going over to the hatch, Usagi looked up the ladder to find Trunks grinning down at her like a happy little kid, his smile so infectious that she matched it with one of her own. “What? Is it as beautiful as I thought it would be? Hang on, I want to take pictures before we ruin it with footprints!” She chirped happily, running back to the bed to get the camera, huffing as she tripped from the bulk of her new snowpants and triple socks inside of her fur boots, accidentally kicking Trunks’s pillow across the room.

                “Gah! Hang on, Trunks!” She called as she moved a little more carefully and retrieved the pillow, intent on replacing it on the over-stuffed, heavenly cloud-like fur mattress. She stopped at the sight of something under his pillow, though—her picture, the very first one he’d taken of her in her white cotton top and the skirt he’d made her, resting on top of a little leather bag.

                The bag was carefully made, she noted. “When did he make this?” She whispered as she picked it up, turning it over and again in her hands as she ran her thumb over the simple decorations sewn into it, made out of beads that could have only been whittled from bone. Even the tie on it was decorated, but the feathers on the end of it were like none of the feathers from the geese he’d killed; these were the purest white and tipped with silver, surrounded by more little whittled white ivory beads hanging on thin strips of leather.

                “Come on slow poke, you’ve got to see this, it’s so cool!” Trunks insisted as he dropped back down without even using the ladder, only to freeze and stare at what she held in her hands, his heart stopping dead in his chest before stuttering back to life in a hammering rhythm. “Why were you going through my shit?” He asked before he could stop himself, feeling betrayed, instantly bringing to mind all the times he’d caught her talking to her computer over the last week whenever he’d come back in from getting more wood or dumping the pot, only for her to stop mid-sentence, blush, and close it hurriedly. He’d never once asked her what she’d been doing, knowing instinctively that whatever it was was something private—probably a video diary or messages for her mother and Senshi—never for a moment invading what little privacy they were afforded when they were forced to keep such close company… but she’d just gone under his pillow without asking!?

                “No, Trunks, I would never!” Usagi said quickly, her eyes pained at the accusation. “I—I can’t believe you trust me so little! I would never go through your things and you should know better! I just accidentally kicked your pillow when I tripped and when I went to put it back I saw this! It was pretty and I just wanted a closer look!” Judging by his blush and the way he looked away and at the wall, she’d shamed him sufficiently, and Usagi took his hand in hers and put the bag in it before turning and grabbing her camera. “I didn’t open it if that’s what you’re thinking,” she added nastily as she slipped her foot into the first rung of the ladder, unable to keep the biting tone from her voice in her anger.

                It was obvious that deep down she was sore and hurt by his perceived rejection, and Trunks sighed in shame as he stared down at the little bag he’d made during the time she’d been passed out, working on it whenever he couldn’t so much as doze, taking care as he’d crafted each individual bead and added them to the simple zig-zag pattern that circled the leather.

                _Just give it to her,_ his beast suggested wearily, shaking its head in exasperation at Trunks’s steadfast stubbornness.

                “She’ll think it’s a mating gift,” Trunks whispered nervously as he fingered the feathers delicately and thought of the rest he’d gathered impulsively, all of them hidden in his pillowcase. “It _is_ a mating gift, Kio. I… I had a moment of weakness when I thought I was going to lose her, while you were still asleep. It’s not just the earrings in there and… I can’t. I can’t give _that_ to her. She’d know what it means, even though it’s not a ring. She’d _know_ , Kio.”

                The tremulous fear of the unknown in his voice filled his beast with unexpected sympathy, and Kio stuttered a purr meant for the scared young warrior clutching the little leather bag to his chest, holding it gently as if he thought it might break. _Trunks… I thought you would have come to this conclusion well before now, but… you do realize that we’re going to be here a long, long time, right? We’re going to break eventually. You can’t fight the pull for that long and you know it, even without me really pushing you. Look at our parents, for fuck sakes! They are without argument more poorly suited for each other than Raditz and Galaxia, and even they couldn’t fight the pull. The two most stubborn people in the universe couldn’t fight it, and Usagi—gods bless her—isn’t even trying to. What makes you think that **we** can?_

“I don’t know,” Trunks admitted, squeezing his eyes shut as he fought tears from how unbelievably helpless he felt right then, how very small and insignificant in the face of the enormity of everything that had been thrust upon him and Usagi since they’d crashed on Five. “She’ll only wind up hurt in the end, Kio. You know I’m not fighting it for my sake… just hers. I want her more than I’ve wanted anything in my life, but I can’t be that selfish. I can’t mate her just to have Father kill her once we’re rescued.”

                _Then train, Trunks,_ his beast advised softly. _Train so that you can defend her when that time comes. Train… and make her your mate._

Trunks didn’t have an answer for that; to defeat his father in combat he’d have to train a lot, but to protect Usagi he’d give it his all, even though he knew he would need to be strong enough to soundly defeat Vegeta—and quickly, too. Anything less than a sound thrashing in less than a minute or two would only invite his father to try again, but if he could put the other prince through a wall with little to no effort… “He’d accept it, then,” he breathed, hope coloring his voice as he looked down at the little bag and stroked his fingertips over it tenderly. “Might makes right… if I could do that, then no one in his right mind would oppose me, including him. I’ll train, Kio,” he stated firmly after another minute of deep thought, “and in a few months… in a few months, we’ll see what happens.”

                He hurried up the ladder then to find Usagi quietly taking pictures, her posture betraying her spoiled happiness at the breathtaking view around them, her blue eyes hard and stony when she finally looked at him. “Usagi… I’m sorry,” Trunks said softly. “I just…” He opened the little bag then and carefully fished out a pair of earrings, leaving the other gift he’d made safely tucked inside where she wouldn’t see it. “I… I made these,” he mumbled awkwardly. “For you. I just… I just didn’t know how to give them to you. The Saiyan rules about gift-giving and all, I’m sure you understand… I was just afraid you might take it the wrong way,” he finished lamely, his eyes fixed on his nervously shifting feet as he extended his hand.

                Usagi gingerly plucked them from his hand, her eyes shining with tears from a mixture of emotions. On one hand she was touched that he would make her anything that didn’t serve a real purpose, something that could be interpreted as a courting gift from an interested Saiyan warrior. And on the other hand, she was saddened that he’d be so terrified of her wanting something more with him that he’d decided not to give her that gift. “They’re beautiful, Trunks,” she managed softly. “Thank you… and giving a gift to someone doesn’t necessarily have to mean anything more than friendship, not in my culture. I won’t think of it as anything more than that.”

                Trunks seemed to find himself again at that and dared to step closer, gently taking the earrings from her hand, briefly stroking his thumb over the little crescent moons he’d carved out of bone. They dangled beneath ivory beads and were all strung together on hooks he’d fashioned out of some wire from her wrecked ship, and other than the other gift inside of the bag, they were the only thing he’d ever made that he was genuinely proud of. He’d put his heart into making them, picturing what they’d look like on her ears, imagining her reaction when he finally gave them to her with a smile and maybe a kiss. Her expression right then was definitely not what he’d hoped to see, but Trunks gently inserted them into her pierced ears anyway, his hand cupping her face as he just gazed down at her, his eyes stormy with emotion. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “Forgive me?”

                Her troubled frown melted into a hesitant smile as she nodded, her hand covering his where he was stroking his thumb over her cheek. “Yeah, I forgive you. This time, anyway,” she added with a wry smirk. “Because I promise you Trunks, if you snap at me like that again, I’m going to slap you.”

                “Mmm… kinky,” he joked, chuckling when she burst into a fit of giggles and lightly shoved at his chest before turning back towards the beautiful view with her camera in hand. “Come on, let’s ruin all of this snow, what do you say?”

                “I say leave the ladder alone and follow my lead,” Trunks ordered as he went to the edge and looked down to see only ten feet between him and the ground… which meant that the snowbank was fourteen feet deep.

                “Nooooo,” Usagi said, quickly guessing exactly what he was thinking of doing. “Oh, no, not for me! I’ll use the ladder, thank you very much!”

                “Pussy,” Trunks teased, thrilled that they were already back to normal when her eyes flickered with annoyance at his challenge. “Are you gonna chicken out on me, Usa? It’s only ten feet, and it’s cushioned by more than that in snow. Come on, it’ll be fun!”

                “Trunks, it’s too high,” Usagi huffed, rolling her eyes as she went closer to the edge and looked down. Ok, fine, it really wasn’t that high and she wasn’t terrified of the idea of jumping, but she was still a little wary of everything that might go wrong if she did. “No, and you’re not jumping either.”

                A brilliant idea struck Trunks then and he grinned devilishly down at her, recalling that she rarely ever turned down a challenge if it was worded the right way. He’d discovered that over the last week, and Usagi had quickly learned that her pride could be as much her own downfall as Trunks’s could be his. “ _I dare you_ ,” he hissed out, followed by a knowing laugh when she glared up at him.

                “Oh, you dare me, do you? And tell me, are you going to jump too?” Usagi shot back hotly, growling under her breath  when he continued to grin and nod emphatically.

                “You bet your sweet ass I’m going to jump! We never get this much snow on Vegeta-sei and I can’t wait! I’m just waiting on you to scrub that yellow streak off of your back, sweetheart!”

                Fine, he wanted to keep teasing and calling her a coward? She’d show him. Feigning fear, Usagi stepped back and moved aside as if she was going to go back in, and when he gestured towards the edge and looked away, about to assure her that it was just fine, she launched herself at him. “ ** _LADIES FIRST!_** ” She cried, shoving him as hard as she was able, howling in triumph when he was launched over the edge and went flailing into the snowbank, leaving a spread eagle Trunks-shaped imprint.

                “Serves you right!” She shouted down at the hole he’d made, waiting for him to pop up and scream at her. Only he didn’t do any such thing and when no reply came after twenty seconds, Usagi’s eyes grew wide and she began to panic. “Oh no,” she whispered. “Trunks? TRUNKS!? Are you alright!?”

                Still no reply. Without another moment of hesitation, Usagi launched herself over the edge and shrieked as she fell the short distance and made her own hole, hers bulkier from all of her snow gear but still Usagi-shaped.

                She was just working her way back up to the surface when something grabbed her leg and jerked her up out of the snow, and she shrieked for a second time and struggled wildly, flailing all three free limbs in an attempt at freedom. “LET ME GO! GODS DAMN YOU I’M GOING TO—oh you _asshole_ ,” Usagi said angrily when she turned in the air and saw Trunks’s triumphant grin. “WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”

                “Got you to jump, didn’t I?” He asked smugly. “And I consider that little stunt payback for shoving a defenseless warrior while his back was turned. How dare you lay hands on my delicate royal body!” He said, his hand grasping his chest as he affected a snooty tone. “I’m so frail! I could have been hurt!”

                “Oh, I’ll lay hands on you, alright,” Usagi threatened as she started to struggle uselessly once more, only for Trunks to drop her in the snow again. She only sunk down a couple of feet that time, though, and popped back up to engage in what only resulted in a slappy fight between them that left them both laughing hysterically and panting for breath in the snow. “Asshole,” she finally gasped once she could breathe again, “if you ever do that again… I’ll kill you.”

                “Looking forward to it,” he chuckled, grinning when she shoved at him once in annoyance, breaking out into peals of laughter all over again when she scooped up a huge handful of snow in her fur mittens and rubbed it all in his face. “That’s the best you got?” He inquired, still full of that Saiyan smugness, his smirk a mirror of his father’s. “And I’ll warn you that I won’t take prisoners if you try it again, Usagi.”

                “One moment,” she purred before reaching into her subspace and retrieving the snowshoes she’d made during their week long lockdown, quickly securing them with multiple leather straps to her boots and then standing up, taking a couple steps to test them out, pleased when she only sunk into the snow by a couple inches. She then proceeded to scoop up a massive armful of snow and move back to where Trunks was lying and warming his half-naked body with his ki, her lips twisted into a mischevious smile. “So… take no prisoners?”

                “You wouldn’t,” he snorted as she held the snow over his groin instead of his face, realizing that there was no way the snow wouldn’t get into the splits of his loincloth before he could warm it enough with his ki to make it melt. “You freeze my cock, Usa, you’re going to pay.”

                “I’ll take my chances,” she said sweetly as she proceeded to dump the armload of snow on his barely clothed privates, squealing when he roared out a Saiyan battle cry and trying her best to run in her snowshoes, thinking she could get away from him since he wasn’t wearing any.

                Unfortunately, she’d forgotten that he could fly.

                Usagi was pinned down in the snow before she even knew what had hit her, his legs weighing hers down and one of his hands effectively securing both of hers over her head as she cackled and squirmed and he growled out something in Saiyan in half-faux fury. She shrieked with a mixture of laughter and outrage when his other hand was suddenly up under her coat and the fur halter top she’d recently made, full of snow and vigorously smearing it all over her breasts. “Titty bit nipply, isn’t it!?” Trunks yelled with glee. “Breast go inside!”

                It was Trunks’s turn to cackle madly in triumph when she continued to scream and yell “COLD!” repeatedly at the top of her lungs, bucking beneath him, instinctually trying to get away from the snow being rubbing into her previously soft and pink, now cold-puckered, bright red nipples. “Had enough?” He purred once the snow had melted and she was glaring up at him, the glint in her blue eyes promising agonizing revenge. “Have you learned not to dish it out if you can’t handle it, sweetheart?”

                “I’ll get you back when you least expect it,” she vowed. “…and just in case you haven’t noticed, Trunks… you’re still holding my breast,” Usagi added, blushing only slightly at the feeling of his ki warmed hand cupping her intimately, his thumb idly stroking the nipple until she’d pointed it out. “Hey, at least even them out before you stop,” she joked, shoving aside her own embarrassment in favor of darkening the blush staining his cheeks. Gods, it was so much fun to tease him when he got that innocently embarrassed look on his face! “The other one’s still cold!”

                _Bet your mouth would warm it nicely,_ Kio mused when Trunks withdrew and put a few feet between them, fidgeting in place, the feeling of her soft breast and its responsive peak burned into his palm.

                “Sorry,” he finally muttered once she’d climbed to her feet, awkward about it from the bulk of the snowshoes. “I um… didn’t intend to—“

                “It’s _fine_ , Trunks,” Usagi insisted, clearly amused by his embarrassment. “Seriously, as much as _you_ troll _me_ , you’d think you could take what you dish out,” she added, repeating his words with dark glee, trying to ignore the warmth that had pooled in her belly as a result of him feeling her up. “Or you could at least recognize it when I do.”

                “Phhht… like you’re one to talk. I tease you and you get those wide eyes like you’re gonna cry or something and I have to insist I was joking!” He replied with a chuckle, relieved that she wasn’t mad at him, even though he could smell her arousal in the air when he came closer and threw an arm around her shoulders to direct her towards the lake.

                Walking easily in her snowshoes, Usagi just rolled her eyes at that and shook her head. “That’s because you always look so serious when you pick on me, Trunks. You really need to learn to smile when you lie.”

                “You’re the ugliest, foulest woman I’ve ever known,” he said with a bright grin. “Better?”

                “Now that’s what I’m talking about!” She called out in approval. “You’re downright fudging ugly if I do say so myself, too,” Usa continued, giggling when he lifted a lavender brow and his expression told her he was wondering if she was joking. “I’m smiling, aren’t I? You’re just so fat and ugly and I hate your stinking guts, Trunks.”

                “Yeah, well I hate you with every fiber of my being too, so that makes us even,” he chuckled, followed by a sigh of relief as he noticed the difference in the way the snow was lying, signaling that they’d reached the lake. “Back up and I’ll get to melting it, sweetheart,” he instructed her as he floated up over the snow and removed his boots.

                “We can’t ice skate on it first?” Usagi asked hopefully, reaching into her subspace to fish out her skates.

                “The hell are those? Are they weapons of some kind for your feet?”

                His perplexed expression had her into a brand new giggle fit, and Usagi shook her head as she unstrapped her snowshoes and attached the skates to her boots with the leather straps on them. “No, it’s a sport on the moon. I might trip over my own feet when I’m walking, but when I skate I move as smoothly as you do in a fight.”

                “Bullshit,” Trunks huffed in disbelief as he gathered his ki, then aimed it at the ridiculous amount of snow on the lake to blow it away, keeping the energy pulse going until only the ice remained on the large expanse he’d worked on. “There’s no fucking way in the universe that you—damn,” he said, stopping himself short when Usagi just smiled and slid down the snowbank to the ice, where she landed gracefully and began gliding along on the blades she’d attached to her boots. “Holy shit,” he muttered when she spun with seemingly little effort and began skating backwards, then grinned, turned again, and worked up some speed.

                The prince’s eyes were wide in amazement when Usagi suddenly jumped over a lump of snow he’d missed, spinning in the air… and landed on one foot flawlessly, her other leg extended along with her arms as the momentum carried her backwards. “Holy fucking… wow, Usa, that’s fucking AWESOME!” He cheered.

                “Thanks!” She laughed as she slowed down to an easier pace and waved him down. “Come on, I’ll teach you, Trunks! It’s easy!”

                Not about to wimp out when she made it look so effortless, Trunks quickly floated down to the ice and just watched her work up some speed again to execute another amazing spin jump, grinning as he watched her move, knowing that she was doing it for fun and not to show off. Though if she had been he wouldn’t have blamed her a bit—if he could do that without using ki, he’d definitely show off, too! “Where did you learn this?”

                “Mako and Momma taught me,” Usagi answered as she skidded to a stop in front of him, her cheeks and eyes bright from the exertion. “Other than throwing the discus, it’s the only sport I’m really any good at. I’m even better than Momma at ice skating,” she added with a modest blush.

                “After we’re done here,” Trunks said slowly as he looked around at the expanse of the lake and wondered if thawing even a small part of it to bathe in would compromise its integrity, “I’m going to take you to a hot spring about fifty miles out. I don’t want to ruin the lake for you.”

                Tempted to jump on him and hug the life out of him, Usagi barely restrained herself because of the ice and her unwillingness to knock him on his ass, but she smiled ear to ear as she snatched up his hand and tugged on it. “Come on, let me teach you how, it’s easy, I promise.”

                The first time Trunks fell, it took every ounce of Usagi’s willpower not to laugh, her face making some funny-looking expressions when Trunks’s arms and legs flailed and he went down hard. “Don’t do it, Usagi,” he huffed from the flat of his back.

                “Phhht… hey, you’d be in hysterics by now if the roles were reversed,” she giggled as she took his hand and helped him up, noting that he was using some ki to keep himself upright this time. “I’ll allow it for now, but using your ki is cheating, Trunks.”

                “Wait, you can sense that?” He asked curiously, genuinely surprised that she’d picked up on it. “Can you feel it through the bond or something?”

                “No, I can just feel it. It feels warm… like on the edge of my mind or something,” she replied with a shrug. “I guess I just picked up on it during the last few weeks?” Usagi continued when she felt his very real astonishment, blushing when that shock was followed by a wave of pride for her. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

                “Actually, it kind of is. It took me months to learn how to sense ki, and you’ve learned to pick mine up in a matter of weeks. The bond probably helped that, but still… I think you’re ready to fly,” Trunks decided.

                “Fine, but right now I’m the teacher, your Highness. Come on,” she urged, taking his hand and tugging on it, taking his other hand and skating backwards slowly as he awkwardly glided forward along with her.

 

#########################################

 

“I’m amazed he’s lasted this long,” Serenity murmured as she watched the mirror that Setsuna had left for them to watch their heirs with under the condition that no one else saw it. For Prince Vegeta or Bulma to discover that Trunks was alive would be nothing short of disastrous. “Honestly, Geta, I’m not being a smartass. Is Trunks gay?”

                Spooning her from behind in his massive bed, Vegeta burst into peals of laughter at that and shook his head before nipping at her marked shoulder affectionately, his arms wound tightly around her bare body as he watched over her shoulder and grinned at the sight of Usagi and Trunks working together on a carcass, moving in tandem as if they’d known each other for years. “No, the boy’s just got a very sound reason for refusing her, and like myself and his father, he has a stubborn streak a mile wide.”

                “But it’s been five weeks, Vegeta! I thought for sure that they would have mated during that blizzard, but…” Serenity shook her head and sighed, no longer able to watch her daughter looking at Trunks so lovingly while the young prince tried his best to pretend not to notice and focused on cleaning the skin of the _ox’ana_ that Usagi had just shot. “Here, you watch, Geta… I can’t, it just breaks my heart watching her love him without it being returned.”

                “Much like the way you avoid me like the plague and act as if I—“

                “Geta, that’s different and you know it,” Serenity whispered, her voice full of anguish even as he sighed and purred for her comfortingly, his calloused fingers running through her unbound her. “I care about you… I love you. I’ve _always_ loved you. You know this… but… I don’t think I can ever be intimate with you. It terrifies me, Vegeta, and I’m sorry that you’re stuck with a mate you can’t make love with.”

                “That’s not what I meant, _atti_ ,” he murmured into her hair. “I knew exactly what I was getting into when I bit you, just like I knew what I was getting into when I offered to mate you before and after Usagi was born. What I was trying to say was that I hate it when you avoid me, like you think I’ll try and initiate sex. I hate it when you won’t even _look_ at me, Ren. I’ll never force anything on you, and when you do that it makes me think you don’t trust me,” the king finished as he withdrew from her and rolled back to his side of the bed.

She’d initiated the cuddling and he’d been thrilled to hold her while they were both naked under the sheets, but he’d be damned if he was going to hold her a moment longer while he was this upset. He’d been so understanding with her, he’d been the perfect mate, and he’d never once gone back on his word. And it hurt him when she looked away, hurt him deeply when he could hear her wondering if he’d try to seduce her or ask her for sex.

Vegeta stiffened at the feeling of her pressing hesitantly against him from behind, her soft breasts molding into his back, her fingers tracing the new scar he’d sustained only a week ago when he’d drug her out into the courtyard after a heated argument, intent on officially marking her in front of all of his people.

The fight had been over whether or not she would finally tell her people about him and their daily liaisons, how she teleported to him every evening and shared his bed because they couldn’t stand to be parted from each other for too long. Serenity had retorted at some point during the argument that it wasn’t like he’d screamed from the rooftops about how he’d mated her, either, and Vegeta had gotten that look in his eyes, the one that the queen knew meant nothing but trouble for her.

She’d gone kicking and screaming over his shoulder, and the first Saiyans that had seen them watched with wide, shocked eyes, unsure _what_ in the holy fucking hell to even think as Vegeta hauled her right out of the palace and into the regular hubbub of people arriving for third shift guard duty and the second shifters leaving.

 ** _That_** had really caused a stir, and amidst a throng of cheering Saiyans thinking that their king had captured the enemy and was about to execute her, Serenity had trembled and stopped shouting and pounding on his back, terrified to the bone that they were going to kill her.

Vegeta had silence them easily though, shouting “SHUT THE FUCK UP!” over the throng of warriors as he’d stepped into the square just in front of the palace, set her down, and torn the shoulder of her gown away to bare the mark he’d refreshed several times since he’d claimed her to save her life. “THIS WOMAN IS MINE!” He continued, snarling and baring his teeth when dozens of warriors cried out in anger and demanded her blood. “TOUCH HER AND I’LL MAKE YOU EAT YOUR OWN BALLS. I WILL MAKE THE _CH’ETE_ LOOK LIKE A GODS DAMNED SCOLDING COMPARED TO WHAT I’LL DO TO YOUR FAMILIES AND EVERYONE YOU’VE EVER CARED ABOUT. SHE IS MY MATE AND SHE IS YOUR QUEEN.”

“Bite me,” he growled down at her once he’d finished screaming at his people in order to be heard above their discontented jeers. “Bite me and make it official, Serenity. You wanted me to scream it from the rooftops, well here it is. Accept my claim, right here and right now.”

“Your promise still stands?” She whispered aloud and through the bond, trembling as she listened to dozens of people calling for her execution, terrified that they would torture her before killing her if Vegeta let them have her.

“Any promise I’ve ever made to you will always stand, my mate. Now bite me and shut these assholes up,” he rumbled. When she’d nodded slightly, Vegeta wrapped his arms around her and lifted her to his height, glad that he was shirtless. “Just do it,” he urged her, his lips to her ear before he moved them to her marked shoulder and sank his teeth in without hesitation.

Serenity’s eyes fluttered shut and she jerked and moaned, her nails digging into Vegeta’s back just like every other time he’d marked her. This time was different, though, there was a pounding need humming through her and Vegeta’s voice whispering in her mind, urging her—begging her—to mark him in return, to complete the bond and to officially take her place beside him as his rightful mate and queen. “I love you,” she confessed for the first time as she sank her teeth into his shoulder in return, crying out in ecstasy as they climaxed simultaneously from the mutual bite, grateful later on when she realized that the passionate sound had been muffled by his shoulder.

The angry shouts and demands for her death had ebbed a little by the time Vegeta set her on her feet again, but there were still plenty of people that were enraged by the impromptu mating ceremony between their king and their worst enemy, so Serenity didn’t complain when he pulled her close and engulfed her in his massive arms while he stared down the crowd that was only continuing to grow.

The blow that had given him the scar on his back came then, and Vegeta barely flinched from it as he turned and struck without aiming, shooting at Execution Beam right through the chest armor of the Elite that had attacked him. “Find Ruta’s family and gather his squad and bring them to me,” he ordered loudly. “I don’t make idle threats! Anyone else wants a piece of me, you’re more than welcome to it!” He added with a snarl.

Another warrior stepped up then, and the king frowned deeply, his mate the only one aware of his terror as he laid his eyes on Broly. “Take your best fucking shot, boy,” Vegeta rumbled with as much confidence as he could muster. “You only get one before I put you down.”

“I was only going to offer to protect your mate, Majesty,” the young Elite stated calmly. “Once the prince picks his jaw off the ground, I’m sure he’ll challenge your right to the crown.”

“You accept Serenity as your rightful and lawful queen?” Vegeta asked evenly. “Out of all of the Elite, I expected you to be the most worrisome.”

“You could have killed me as an infant, as was your right, Majesty,” Broly replied. “But you didn’t, therefore you have my loyalty. Who shall I kill first?”

“No one… for now. You’re assigned as the queen’s bodyguard whenever and wherever she goes unless I’m glued to her hip. That includes her kingdom as well. You think you can handle the shitstorm on Earth’s moon, boy?”

Cracking his knuckles, Broly let his beast show for a moment, his eyes flashing green and his ki and hair flickering to gold. “Looking forward to it.”

“You can’t kill anyone, boy. Their ways aren’t ours. You defend the queen and yourself, but no killing unless you’re ordered or absolutely forced to,” Vegeta elaborated.

“Well, I always did love a challenge,” he chuckled as he looked around, his lips twitching up in an arrogant little smirk as he realized how quiet the crowd had gotten since he’d stepped forward. “Bring Ruta’s family and squad to the king,” he shouted, “and anyone else that dares to strike him or the queen will answer to me… and you should all remember that I **_love_** playing with my food.”

########################################

“I still can’t take Broly back with me, no matter what you say,” Serenity murmured as she continued to trace his scar, choosing not to recall the rest of that encounter and how Vegeta had summarily executed a family of five as an example of how he would keep his word to protect her.

Serenity had shunned him for days after that, unable to even look at him after he’d vaporized a woman and three teenagers without batting an eyelash, even when he’d insisted through the bond that it was necessary—that if he hadn’t gone through with it, he was practically inviting assassins right into their bedroom and personally handing them the weapon that would end her. It was the Saiyan way, he’d reminded her. Might made right, and if you made a promise, you’d better be ready to back it up or die. By proving that he would kill someone’s whole family for opposing his choice of mate, he’d ensured that anyone would think long and hard about hurting her before they made such an idiotic decision. At least he’d spared Ruta’s squad when they’d all immediately knelt and sworn fealty to their new queen after a long moment of wide-eyed shock—but the king had hesitated to do even that until Serenity had stepped between him and the small squad of seven, stating firmly that she accepted their sworn allegiance and that it would be wrong to execute them.

“You need to tell your people, Ren,” Vegeta sighed. “Especially your Senshi. They’re going to be livid when they find out you’ve kept it from them for over a month.”

“I know, I know,” the queen murmured, nuzzling the scar and then kissing it with a hint of shyness, wondering if she could find the courage to finally kiss him on the mouth as she’d ached to do. “Rei suspects, I think. Setsuna says that she’s been consulting the sacred fire several times a day, trying to figure out where I’ve been going after dark. Sooner or later, what little power I have left won’t be enough to keep her psychic gifts at bay… and then she’s going to flip. Maybe I should just tell Rei… I know if I handle it right she’ll play defense for me and keep the others from finding out.”

“Their reaction can’t possibly be any worse than my warriors’,” he snorted, rolling his eyes as he tried not to be angry with her. She looked away from him, she avoided him, and now she was afraid of what her Senshi would think of her even after he’d brazenly marked her in front of the Elite and many others, who’d all been pissed as hell about it.

“Please, Geta… please don’t be mad at me,” Serenity whispered, her voice choking up. “I’m just afraid, I can’t help it.”

The sound of tears in her voice was always his weakness, and he felt his annoyance fade as he turned to face her and brushed the salty droplets from her cheeks. “I’m not angry, _r’sha_ ,” he told her gently. “I just don’t like secrets.”

“I know. I’ll tell them soon, I promise. Just let me work up my courage.” They laid there silently for a couple of minutes while Serenity traced the roadmap of scars on his chest, listening to his purr take on a slightly aroused, contented note as she worked up her courage for an entirely different matter, and when she finally did, she kissed his mark. “Vegeta?”

“Mmhmm?” He’d been nearly asleep from the way her fingertips had been lightly wandering him, but he roused enough to crack open his eyes and pay attention.

He’d never even touched her except to hold her, and all of the gentle touches she’d been giving him for weeks had been one-sided, so Serenity knew that if she wanted something from him, she’d have to ask, just as he’d told her when he’d marked her. He wouldn’t even share her bed or touch her unless she requested it.

They’d shared the bed since almost the beginning, but Serenity had grown used to that twenty years ago, when Vegeta had insisted on her being close in order to be sure of her safety. Her nudity around him didn’t bother her much, either, since he’d been there for Usagi’s birth. But touching…

“I want you to kiss me,” she whispered, her hands trembling as they rested on his chest.

Serenity wasn’t sure what exactly she expected from him, but when he cupped her face and lowered his mouth to claim hers gently, she sagged in relief, sighing into the only intimate contact she’d known in over twenty years. Even when she’d been pregnant with Usagi, Vegeta had never done more than hold her, but now that he was finally kissing her she could only think that it felt absolutely perfect.

When the king drew back, the stars in her eyes warmed him from head to toe and he purred for her enthusiastically before dipping his mouth back down to hers, nipping briefly at her lower lip before sucking at it, and eventually morphing it into a slow, passionate, desire-filled kiss.

So caught up in the way his tongue was dancing against hers and his hands were possessively gripping her hips, Serenity could only moan and fist her fingers in his hair until he instinctively rocked his arousal into her stomach. She instantly spooked at that, hurriedly jerking back and putting twelve inches between them, her eyes wide in fear as she fought to breathe. “I—I’m sorry,” she finally stammered out. “I… I didn’t mean to—“

“No, it was my fault,” Vegeta rasped, his voice husky with need and his pupils dilated as he tried his best to listen to his beast, who was hammering away at him to back off, that she was scared and needed space. “I got carried away, Ren, forgive me. I just… I’ve fantasized about kissing you for two decades, and when it finally happened…”

“I know,” she whispered, managing a shaky smile for his benefit. “I have, too.”

“Oh?” He asked curiously, his interest piqued by her confession. “Well… how was it? Did I live up to the hype?”

“Heh… you _are_ the hype, Geta.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Trunks? Trunks… I don’t feel so good,” Usagi whimpered against him beneath the furs, her thighs rubbing together to give the heat pooling between them some relief. She felt so hot and tense, so aroused that she couldn’t even label it with a proper word, and the only thing she could think of seemed to be him and how he would finally feel inside of her, her common sense just barely restraining her from taking what she needed from him.

“Hm?” Cracking his eyes open in the dark, Trunks was confused by being woken so early, but her scent hit him like a bag of bricks within moments and he felt himself hardening in response, his first reaction to grind up into her core. “Shit… fuck, Usa… sorry,” he whispered as he trembled from the strain of getting himself under control.

“No,” she answered shakily as she moved against him on her own, one leg draping over his hip. “Don’t… don’t stop… please, Trunks, I feel so hot,” she choked out, her voice thick with desire and frustration as she gave into the burning in her shoulder and between her thighs, the sensation intensifying the longer she went without the friction she desperately required. “ _Please_ ,” she insisted when he stiffened in her arms and tried to pull away. “Please, Trunks, make it stop!”

“It’s the mark,” he realized, immediately relaxing and petting her soothingly, urging his beast to back down. Damn it, he and Kio had discussed this only a week ago and Kio had agreed to let Trunks handle it, so why was he being a dick now and urging the prince to take her!?

 _She smells so good,_ Kio groaned in reply. _Boy, you need to get us out of here right now if you don’t want me to go back on my word. Do something… hell, anything! I want her **now**!_

“Usagi, we can’t,” he reminded her gently. “We’ll be married if I—“

“Just a little?” She asked hopefully, too caught up in the need humming through her insistently to even be embarrassed by her own brazen request. The fact that she couldn’t see him probably helped that, and before she could think any better of it, Usagi kissed his shoulder, spurred on by the ache in her own.

Lighting the area dimly with his ki, Trunks tipped her chin up to look her in the eyes, noting how dilated they were and the flush to her cheeks, fighting every instinct inside of him to roll on top of her and make the bond permanent. “Usagi, please think. _Try_ for me, sweetheart. We can’t… you _know_ we can’t. I honestly don’t think there’s such thing as a little sex, either.”

“I… I meant other stuff,” she clarified, blushing hotly as she prayed that he wouldn’t ask her to elaborate, that he would fill in the blanks for himself.

“Oh.” Apparently the scent of her arousal was making him dense, because the only thing he’d been able to think of when she’d said ‘just a little’ was a joke his Uncle Raditz had made about ‘just the tip.’ “I… shit, Usa, don’t do that,” he gasped out when she kissed his shoulder again and arched into him instinctively, the healing bond driving her to renew it.

“I… I can’t help it,” she stammered, the end of her statement coming out as a low, throaty moan as she bent her lips to his shoulder again and covered her own with her hand, rubbing it in a slow, lazy rhythm. “F—Feels so good…”

That scattered every idea he had for finding some way to help her, and Trunks instantly jerked away from her mouth, the scrape of her teeth drawing a full body shiver from him and covering him head to toe in gooseflesh even as he scrambled out of the bed. “Usa, we can’t mate!” He barked out hotly, his tone of voice far harsher than what he actually felt, spurred on by his own frustration with himself and his beast.

Usagi had no words for that, she could only look up at him pleadingly in the dim firelight, her soulful blue eyes filling with tears at his rejection and unexpected anger, the burning in her body forgotten for several moments thanks to the overwhelming sorrow she felt.

Shit, he hadn’t meant it like that! “Usa, I’m sorry, I didn’t—“

“Go,” she sobbed before he could finish apologizing. “If you don’t want to help me, then go!”

Sufficiently chastised, Trunks felt smaller than he ever had in his life and floundered in place for nearly a minute, his eyes locked with hers as he tried to think of a suitable apology to wash away that devastated, hopeless look she was giving him, his beast howling at him so loudly that he could hardly even hear himself think. “Usagi,” he breathed. “Sweetheart… I… my father…”

Hearing his unspoken plea, the moon princess swallowed hard and finally looked away, wiping at her eyes even as she trembled with need beneath the furs, aching for him to come to her willingly and just give in to the growing magnetism between them. Usa had tried to convince herself multiple times that it was just a passing crush, that maybe it was just instinct because he was a man and she was a woman, but now more than ever, she acknowledged silently that she was irrevocably in love with him.

And if you loved someone—really, truly loved them—you’d be willing to do anything to make them happy.

“Go,” she insisted with false calm. “If you won’t help me, Trunks, then you need to go away… I’ll… I’ll try to help myself,” she added, blushing hotly in embarrassment, knowing that he knew what she meant.

Completely unable to come up with a suitable response to that and unwilling to embarrass her further, Trunks rubbed at his pounding forehead, fighting his beast every step of the way to the hatch, and went out into the night. The bone-freezing cold helped to cool his libido substantially, but it was honestly the clean air that really did it for him and made it possible to think again, and he simply collapsed on the roof and breathed deep for several minutes while he tried to ignore the sound of Usagi quietly crying below.

 _What the serious fuck is wrong with you!?_ Kio finally yelled at him, his voice cracking in Trunks’s head as he screamed for his mate, galled by the fact that the prince had outright refused to ease her burning.

“We’d mate her and you know it,” Trunks replied lamely, overcome by more guilt that he’d ever felt in his life as he sensed what Kio was about to say next.

 ** _WE GOT GOTEN THROUGH A BURNING, YOU STUPID FUCKING CHILD!_** His beast roared, rattling Trunks’s brain from the volume and making him cry out in pain as he clutched his head with both hands. **_WE DON’T LIKE MEN, BUT WE STILL GOT OUR BEST FRIEND THROUGH IT… AND YOU JUST REFUSED YOUR GODS DAMNED MATE!_** Kio lowered his tone then, but only because he could feel Usagi through the remnants of the bond, her anger towards him hot for hurting Trunks. It didn’t mean he was going to be silent, though—oh no, he still had quite a bit to say on the matter. _You just rejected your mate, boy. She loves you with every breath she takes. She would fucking **die** for you… and you can’t even get your shit together long enough to properly care for her when she begs you to do one simple thing for her. You’re a disgrace. You haven’t a scrap of honor left as far as I’m concerned. You’re no prince… no, not at all. You’re not even a true Saiyan. You’re just a half-breed bastard that can’t get the fuck over his daddy issues. _

Hearing some of his father’s words coming from Kio snapped something inside of Trunks, and he trembled in the layer of snow on the roof and he fought back tears of shame, acknowledging that there was more truth than lie in everything his beast had said. “We can’t bite her,” he insisted weakly as he crawled to the hatch and gripped the rope that would open it.

Kio could sense Trunks’s sudden resolve to go to her even though he was terrified of mating her, and gritting his proverbial teeth, he came to a difficult decision. _I said I’d never do it again, but I’d give her everything and anything, boy. You keep her safe and get her through this, and when I wake…_

Trunks was too floored by Kio’s selfless offer to say a word to him. His shock was coupled with the biggest guilt trip he’d ever felt, too; Kio would do anything for her… absolutely anything, and that even meant going to sleep and risking not being there for Trunks should something bad happen. “She’s my mate,” he agreed, “and… you’re right, Kio. I should be willing to do anything to help her, even if I won’t mark her. I’m sorry.”

_Tell her that, not me._

He felt Kio go to sleep then, his presence fading into the very back of his mind until he was barely even able to sense his beast, and Trunks shivered as he raised his ki to warm himself, thinking of how much it would suck for Usagi if he came back inside and forced her to snuggle up to a warrior popsicle.

 It was when he heard her still sobbing quietly that he got moving, feeling the simmering lust through the remnants of the bond, the scent of her arousal smacking him in the face the moment he dropped through the hatch, setting his heart to pounding erratically and lighting his veins on fire. “I’m here, Usa,” he told her shakily as he crossed the short distance to the bed and slipped under the covers, unsurprised to find her hand between her legs when he snuggled close and awkwardly pecked her on the lips, unsure of how to proceed.  

Half expecting him to be a hallucination brought on by the fantasy in her head of him helping her find release, Usagi opened her tear-filled eyes and looked up at him in surprise, blushing hotly the moment she realized he wasn’t just a figment of her imagination. He’d come back… he’d actually come back!

“No,” Trunks insisted when she tried to withdraw her hand from her drenched sex, pressing his own down on top of it, his face reddening at his sudden boldness. “Don’t stop. In fact…” Sliding his hand between hers and her wet folds, he nervously licked his lips and sandwiched her fingers with his free hand when she tried to pull it back. “Show me?”

The feeling of his calloused fingertips pushing against her aching, swollen clit had her trembling against him, and when he gave her one slow, unsure stroke, Usagi moaned softly, draping her right leg over his hips to give him better access. “Trunks… don’t stop,” she whispered when his hand stilled and he looked down at her with uncertainty in his eyes.

“Show me,” he repeated. “I… I’ve never done this, Usa. Not outside of the burning… and I honestly don’t remember much from when I burn,” he added with a hot blush as he began to purr for her softly in encouragement. “I want to help you, but you need to show me what you like.”

The thought of putting it into words only embarrassed her, so as she trembled with the driving need thrumming through her, Usagi timidly pressed his fingers into her folds once more, drawing in a sharp breath at the immediate sweet pleasure zinging through her when he grazed her sensitive flesh. “Right there… please, Trunks…”

When he didn’t continue on his own, Usagi was momentarily caught between the mortifying thought of doing as he’d asked and just throwing away her inhibitions in favor of finally finding some relief, going still against him as she warred between her emotions and her physical needs. It was the soulful look in his eyes that decided her, those sky blue orbs gazing down at her with a mixture of tenderness, desire, and even a hint of fear as he looked just as nervous as she was beneath all of the pounding lust. He wanted her. He wanted her just as badly as she wanted him, but he genuinely didn’t know what to do and was terrified of doing it wrong, or of going too far. He just needed a little push, for her to show him what to do, and then maybe he would take over on his own.

“Just touch me,” she whispered as she guided his fingers with hers, keeping her hand flush to his as she began to use his calloused digits to rub her in slow, rhythmic circles, her hips instantly arching into the warm friction. “Yes,” she encouraged him when he followed her cues and his fingers grew firmer, keeping up the lazy pace, his forehead resting against hers briefly before she pulled back to continue to look him in the eyes.

This was exactly what Usagi had meant when she’d tried to explain to him about her first orgasm being impersonal, about how she’d wanted to share it with someone, how it should have been special. This was special. She was with the man she loved, and even though she knew she couldn’t tell him that, she could look into his eyes and watch them darken with desire as he brought her to climax. She could pretend for a moment in time that he loved her as much as she loved him, and maybe… just maybe… this could be the beginning of something wonderful. “Look at me,” she breathed when he bent his head to nuzzle her throat, smiling up at him with a hint of remaining shyness when he immediately complied, watching his pupils dilate when she emitted a quiet whimper in reaction to the warmth steadily growing between her thighs. “I… I’m close, Trunks…”

“Good,” the prince answered as he continued to follow the motions of her hand, memorizing every little nuance of how she liked to be touched, imagining just how he’d replicate those motions with his tongue and what she’d sound like as she cried out in ecstasy. “I want you to come for me, sweetheart,” he murmured when her free hand cupped his face in a clear order for him to maintain eye contact, his heart pounding at the constant tugging in his chest, a seemingly never-ending pull that was hammering away at him like destiny on repeat. “I want you to come,” he repeated hoarsely as he dipped his face to hers for a brief kiss that felt as raw as it was short. “And then I’m going to kiss you where my hand is, Usa… come for me, _atti_ … I’ve fantasized about how beautiful you are when you come.”

“T—Trunks… Trunks, I…” His roughly spoken desires were setting her off quicker than she’d thought they would, and Usagi’s hand slipped to his shoulder to clutch him tightly, her guiding fingers trembling against his as she lost focus amidst the haze of the building pleasure. “I… I… oh gods, yes— just like that—“

He had taken over for her as her hand had started to shake, and Trunks was spurred on by the way the wet nails of her right hand were suddenly digging into his spine, just the way he liked it, her soft, musical voice singing for him sweetly as she moaned her pleasure. “That’s it, baby,” he sighed happily, his purr increasing in volume as her sobs of pleasure did the same and her nails raked down his back. “No, look at me,” he added when her eyes fluttered shut and she moaned his name loudly. “You wanted that, right?” He couldn’t help but smile at the quick, jerky nod she gave him, and when she held his gaze once more, that amused smile melted into a softer expression, brought on by the tears shining in her love-filled eyes. “What else do you want, my moonbeam?” He asked gently. “Tell me and it’s yours. _I’m_ yours until the burning fades.”

“Make love to me,” Usagi replied without hesitation, the pleasure running through her so intense that the tears in her eyes were tears of joy and love. “I need you, Trunks,” she whispered shakily, terrified that he’d stop, that he’d get angry with her for her request and leave her there to suffer on her own.

She couldn’t help it; she knew that he didn’t love her, but if she could just have him once she would swear to be content with it. To be able to have just one memory of what it would be like to be his would be better than all of the fantasies she’d ever had—and it wasn’t the bond, she knew that now for a fact. She loved him, simply and truly, without restraint and without conditions. Whatever he chose, she would accept it, even if it broke her heart. “I want you inside of me,” she continued when he didn’t respond, his expression tense with what seemed to be worry. “I want all of you, Trunks.”

“Promise me…” he choked out, his resolve crumbling in the face of her love, “…you won’t let me bite you. Promise me that and I’m yours.”

His fingers were still moving even as he spoke, and Usagi teetered on the edge of oblivion as his eyes bored into hers, the passion in them no longer banked by the idea of holding back and his purr stuttering into a seductive, heavily aroused pattern that she hadn’t heard since the day he’d cut her hair. “I promise,” she swore, willing to do anything to erase his fear of what his father would do if he mated her, knowing that he’d never give her everything if she wouldn’t agree to it.

If she only knew how wrong she was, Usagi might have asked for the bite as well—Trunks was on the brink of taking all of her, of making her his in every way possible, and if she hadn’t agreed to his terms he would have likely given in to her fully. “Come for me,” he groaned as he rolled on top of her and pressed her into the furs, nipping at her lower lip when he felt a shapely leg wind around his waist. “Come for me and you can have me, _atti_.”

The sensation of his hard, wide arousal pressing to her entrance was what finally did her in, and Usagi keened as she came for him, the pleasure rolling through her like a tidal wave, her nails piercing his back as she peaked and shook from the force of it. “ _Trunks_ —” That was the only word she uttered that he understood; the rest of her short sentence was babbled out in Lunarian, sweet and lilting in that lightly clipped accent he loved to hear.

“ _Flia adai_ ,” she repeated breathlessly as the ecstasy ebbed and she continued to gaze into his eyes, finally bending up to kiss him heatedly, dragging him down to her when he parted her lips with his tongue and plundered her mouth.

Every last ounce of their pent up longing for each other went into that kiss, and Usagi moaned and rocked into him as they devoured each other, her silky thighs gripping his hips as he breached her virginity. She managed only to wince at that, gasping at the brief flash of pain, pressing him forward when he broke the kiss to look down at her in concern, his eyes dark with need. “Don’t stop,” she insisted when he paused. “Please, Trunks… _flia adai_ …”

Swallowing hard as he resisted the urge to drive forward deep and hard, Trunks lowered himself onto his elbows and pressed against her intimately, filling her slowly with gentle, shallow thrusts, drinking in her soft gasps when he kissed her again, his mouth intense and demanding in a sharp counterpoint to how gently he was claiming her body.

Something about kissing her always did him in, which was why Trunks had avoided it at all costs since they’d danced, but as their lips made contact over and over again he couldn’t remember why in Dra’s name he’d denied himself the feeling of such exquisite completion. Everything was suddenly right with the world as she moaned into his mouth and her naked body pressed tightly to his—it didn’t matter that no one had come to rescue them, it didn’t matter that they were holed up and could barely leave due to the cold, and it didn’t matter that they were practically living like savages in comparison to what they were used to. And for once in his life since he’d met her, it didn’t matter the slightest fucking bit that his father would disapprove. He had her and she had him, and that was all they ever needed.

And his father could burn in Hell for all he cared right then.

Even though the bond was closing, Usagi’s thoughts echoed his, her heart singing with joy as he kissed her with the hunger and fire she’d wanted to experience again since the last day he’d kissed her, since they’d come dangerously close to making love just after he’d cut her hair. This kiss was no less savage and demanding, either, it curled her toes and drew a needy moan from her, the warmth inside of her blooming from it and the sensation of his calloused fingers caressing her.

It also weighed heavily with the emotion they’d both felt when he’d kissed her during the dance, the love filling them up as their mouths mated as if it was the last thing they’d ever do—and for Trunks, he treated it as such, kissing her with all of the love he felt for her, trying his best to convey through his actions how he felt for her, unable to speak it aloud.

“Mine,” he growled as he felt his beast stirring from how high his emotions were riding, a possessive edge to his voice as he pushed past her tight, hot resistance and felt her squeezing him as she whispered those same words in Lunarian and begged him yet again not to stop. “ _R’sha_ ,” Trunks gasped as he began to move at her insistence, rolling his hips against hers slowly, drowning in the instant pleasure he was rewarded with when her burning helped spur on the beginnings of an orgasm despite her lingering discomfort, tightening her around him briefly.

It wasn’t just the burning, though, it was the same emotional high that Trunks was riding that had Usagi singing his praises, clutching at him tightly with tears in her eyes as he finally gave her what she wanted—himself, unbridled and unhampered by what his father might think, hot and passionate and even a little rough as he drug his teeth down her throat and held her to him like he was terrified of her running away. “ _Flia adai_ ,” she whispered with all of her heart, her eyes swimming with fresh tears when he suddenly gentled his thrusts and trembled in her arms, choking out a phrase in Saiyan she didn’t understand.

“ _Tah’kha’or au_ ,” he purred a second time as he looked her in the eyes, so caught up in how good she felt and the love he could feel coming from her through the remnants of the bond that he was practically willing her to understand him. “ _Cha’dra m’yo… r’sha m’yo. Tah’kha’or au.”_

On some level she did, and Usa whimpered as she tightened around him, her walls flexing and squeezing as she came, her nails digging into his back while she replied in kind in her native language. “ _Flia adai_ … Trunks… Trunks, I’m coming!”

“Yes… fuck yes,” he growled as he moved harder to ride out her climax, reveling in how wet he’d gotten her, how wonderfully tight she was as she cried out in ecstasy. He somehow managed to hold back his own release, and when Usagi went limp beneath him and looked up at him with stars in her eyes, Trunks stopped and rested on top of her for a moment, kissing her roughly before pulling out. “Lie still,” he ordered when she opened her mouth to question why he hadn’t continued.

“But Trunks—“

“I made a promise… and I keep my promises, sweetheart,” he told her, grinning rakishly as he grabbed a bottle of water and soaked a rag to clean her virgin’s blood from both of them. “I told you I was going to kiss you here once you’d come for me, remember?”

“Oh,” Usa whispered, blushing hotly at the thought of his mouth between her thighs. Mina and Mako had talked candidly about such things and had said that it felt amazing, but now that she could think well enough through the burning, she wasn’t so sure about letting him see everything down there. “Trunks… you don’t have to. I mean… you’ll see me,” she added shyly.

“I’ll stay under the blanket,” he chuckled as he set the washcloth aside and slipped beneath the top fur and dragged her to him by her hips, laughing in reaction to her squealing in surprise. The first touch of his tongue to her wet folds ripped another squeal from her, and Usagi squirmed under the intense pleasure when Trunks parted them and began to lap at her clit, growling and purring so loudly that she felt the vibrations against the sensitive little nub of flesh.

“Tastes so good,” Trunks mumbled as he switched to her thighs and began peppering them with slow, open-mouthed kisses.

“Feels good,” Usagi replied breathlessly, only to tremble nervously when he drew back the fur and looked up at her, his pupils dilated so wide she could barely see the sky blue surrounding them. “T—Trunks… you can see. Please don’t—“

“Every inch of you is so beautiful, sweetheart,” he murmured before sliding back to her clit and kissing it slowly, dragging his tongue against it and melting at the sound of the woman he loved moaning his name. “Come for me,” he urged her after a few minutes of kissing and nuzzling her over and over until she was drenched from his efforts and panting for air, her fingers tangled in his hair.

“C—close,” she stammered, her eyes rolling back as his beard and mustache tickled her deliciously. “Gods… Trunks… don’t you ever shave again, I swear by all that’s holy—mmm… I love the beard…”

Laughing at the randomness of her comment, Trunks nodded, taking mercy on her and pursing his lips about her clit to suckle her gently, purring loudly when her thighs tightened around his head and she pulled at his hair.

Usagi exploded at that and moaned his name again as he continued to suck and lick at her until she was a quivering mass of Lunarian goo, and when he finally slid back up and wiped the proof of her pleasure from his mouth, she gazed up at him in wonder. “Trunks… my Trunks,” she whispered, the love in her eyes undeniable as she traced his grizzled jawline with her fingertips.

“All yours, sweetheart,” he confirmed, unwilling to spoil the moment by reminding her that it was only until the burning was over for her, wanting to pretend as well that this was the real deal, that they were mating, that they were finally husband and wife and that they’d live happily ever after. “Tell me you’re mine, too,” he sighed as he pushed inside of her again, shivering at how tight she’d gotten, trying his best to ease his way in out of concern for accidentally hurting her newly deflowered sex. “Tell me, Usagi,” he choked out when she could only moan and draw him in deeper with her thighs. “Gods… I’ve wanted to hear it for so long… tell me, sweetheart…”

“I’m yours,” she answered breathlessly, leaning up to capture his lips with hers, wrapping her arms and legs around him tightly to drag him back down into the furs with her when she laid back. “I’ve always been yours, Trunks.”

“ _M’yo_ ,” he sighed happily as he nuzzled her shoulder, rolling his hips against hers lazily and daring to taste the creamy flesh, groaning loudly at the pleasure rippling through him with every slow, deep thrust. He was lost in the beautiful perfection of it all as he nipped at her shoulder, lulled into a trance not only by how good and right she felt, but by the sound, smell and sight of her as well, and Usagi only just barely saved him from sinking his teeth into her, gently turning his face to hers and kissing him as she came yet again.

“Don’t bite me,” she reminded him once she could speak again, trailing her fingertips down his spine to his tail, fluffing them through the fur to make him jerk against her and emit a strangled sound of surprised ecstasy. “Come for me, Trunks,” she encouraged him, positive that he was restraining himself to ensure that she was satisfied.

“Not yet,” Trunks purred as he went back to her shoulder, instinctively nipping and licking at it, groaning at the thought of tasting her blood in his mouth, his beast stirring slightly from its slumber at the emotional high he was riding and urging him to complete the bond. “Gods… _I want this_ … be mine, Usa…”

Usagi saved him yet again, keeping her promise to ensure that he didn’t bite her, distracting him with her lips and tongue, whimpering in disappointment when he went back to her shoulder once more. “Kiss me,” she whispered in his ear. “I love the way you kiss me, Trunks.”

She didn’t have to ask twice; he was more than eager to please her and proceeded to devour her as she’d requested, tangling his fingers in the golden strands he adored, his thrusts slightly erratic when Usagi toyed with the base of his tail. That did him in, and he let loose a low growl when he reached completion, grinding against her and moving hard and deep as he spilled his seed, clutching her to him as she tightened in reaction to the hot, wet sensation and followed him into oblivion.

It took more than a few minutes before either of them could think coherently, and Usagi was the first to stir, cracking open her eyes to study him in concern. “Are you alright, Trunks?”

“ _G’re_ ,” he mumbled, still out of it from the force of his climax and the lull of the afterglow. “ _Au_?”

“ _G’in, m’eh en_ ,” Usagi chuckled, amused by her own accent in his language. “It still burns a bit, but I feel a lot better than I did before.”

“Mmm… good.” Kissing the crescent on her forehead, Trunks rolled off of her then, but that was as far as he went before he tugged her close again and buried his face in her hair. “Should only take me a few minutes before I’m ready for round two, sweetheart,” he added sleepily, purring contentedly as she started petting and stroking him as if she could never get tired of exploring him. “Mmm… so… how was it for your first time?” He asked, trying his best to stay awake by making conversation, knowing that if he dozed off it would be hard to rouse him again.

“It was perfect, Trunks,” Usagi replied, blushing shyly at the way he was looking down at her with a lazy, utterly satisfied look in his eyes. “I’m really glad you were my first. Um… was it good for you?”

It was easy to see that she was suddenly feeling self-concious about her inexperience, and Trunks kissed her gently before nodding and smiling. “Like I told you before, I really don’t remember the burnings I went through… so you might as well have been my first, too, sweetheart. And you were everything I’d imagined.”

“You too,” she whispered happily, unwilling to remember that this was a one-time thing. It was too nice to think that it was permanent, that they were married and that he loved her as much as she loved him. “Trunks… thank you,” she added with sudden nervousness. “I know how you feel about your father… so thank you for doing this for me.”

“I was an asshole to leave you like that, sweetheart. Forgive me?” He wasn’t surprised by her immediate nod; the woman in his arms would likely forgive him for unmaking the universe if it meant his happiness. “I did it for Goten, so I shouldn’t have even hesitated to help you.”

“Wait… I thought I was your first?”

“First woman,” Trunks corrected with a grin. “Why… jealous? Heh, don’t be. With Goten it was rough and sloppy and very, very Saiyan. It… it wasn’t like this,” he added seriously, dipping his face to hers for a slow, hungry kiss. “I hadn’t fantasized about making love to Goten since the moment I’d met him. But you… yeah,” he finished hoarsely. “Definitely fantasized about you, Usa. A lot.”

“Yeah. Same. Trunks…? When it doesn’t burn anymore…”

The longing in her eyes nearly broke him, and it took every ounce of his willpower to shake his head. “I’m sorry, Usa, but no. I… I’m sorry,” he finished lamely, recalling all of his training so far. He was stronger than his father now, but not strong enough to trounce him soundly in a one-on-one fight. Not yet, anyway.

“I understand,” she sighed as she snuggled into him again, unable to look him in the eye anymore, shivering as the burning through her shoulder and between her thighs started to return, her hands trembling when he sniffed her hair and rolled on top of her again. “Will you make love to me again?” She asked, her voice just as sad as it was hopeful.

“If you want me to,” Trunks murmured, his heart aching at the sight of tears in her eyes—and something told him that they weren’t happy tears this time. “I can go away for the next day or two if you’d prefer.”

“No, it’s just… I want all of you,” she whispered, coming as close to admitting that she loved him as she would in Solarian. If only he knew that that’s what she’d been saying in Lunarian the entire time, then maybe he’d be willing to…

No. No, he could never know. Usagi wouldn’t have him bound to her just because she was in love with him and he felt guilty. She wouldn’t mate with him if her feelings were one-sided, she didn’t want a marriage that was loveless on his end, even if she was madly, deeply in love with him. “I’ll take what I can get then, while I can get it,” she said tenderly as she traced his jawline, memorizing him with her eyes and hands, committing all of him to memory so she could later recall how wonderful this night was. She wanted to remember every detail since she had to force herself to be content with just a day or two of them surrendering to the simmering lust between them; it would likely be the only intimacy that she would ever know since she knew that he’d ruined her for any other man.

No one would measure up to him. He’d had her body, but importantly, he had her heart, and Usagi was the type that only gave her heart once in a lifetime. No, there would be no other man after him; when they were rescued she would break it off with Endymion and explain it all to her mother and her Senshi, and hopefully they’d be able to forgive her for falling hopelessly in love with the enemy.

“Same, sweetheart,” Trunks breathed as he pressed his entry. “Trust me… I don’t want it to be over, either, but…”

Her eyes fluttered shut as he pushed inside of her warm, wet channel, and Usagi tried to hold him impossibly closer as he began to move, savoring how good he felt—how _right_ he felt. “I know… I know…” He didn’t need to reiterate just why he wouldn’t mate her, she knew all too well, and for the first time in her life, Usagi felt the seeds of true hatred blooming inside of her. Hatred for his father and for the position Vegeta had put him in. Hatred for how unfair it all was.

But she couldn’t focus on that at the moment, she was too busy  drowning in his scent and the feeling of him stretching her deliciously, moving slow and deep, every movement checked out of concern for her petite frame and her inexperience. “Gods, Trunks… _flia adai_ ,” she whispered, unable to stop the words from leaving her lips, moaning into his mouth when he suddenly kissed her heatedly.

“Come for me, beautiful… _ra’dir ih m’eh… tah’kha’or au, k’sha m’yo_.”

The heavy emotion in his voice set her off, and Usagi climaxed for him, her nails digging into his spine as she called out her release, crying his name, more words of love spilling from her in Lunarian. And as she came back down from her high she kissed him passionately, her hips rolling up into his in time with his thrusts, her sadness momentarily forgotten in lieu of just enjoying what she had while she had it.

And that’s what she knew she had to do; she had to enjoy the time she had with him while she could, because in a day or two they’d be back to just being friends, with Trunks none the wiser about her deep, unwavering love for him.

“ _Flia adai_.”


	16. Chapter 16

“Usa…?”

“Yeah.”

The empty note to her voice bothered him, and Trunks sighed as he pulled her impossibly closer, his face in her hair as he ran his fingers soothingly down her back in an attempt to convey just how deeply sorry he was that their physical relationship had to come to an end soon. “How’s your burning doing?”

Usa had expected him to ask if she could go back to her side of the bed, to give him some space, so his question surprised her a little, enough that she answered honestly. “It’s bearable,” she whispered sadly into his chest. Several hours ago, she’d contemplated the idea of lying about it when he asked so as to prolong the most wonderful experience she’d had in her life, but even if she hadn’t been taken by surprise, Usa knew she could probably never lie to him.

The sound of unshed tears in her voice broke Trunks’s heart, and when he found himself seriously thinking about making this a regular thing, it wasn’t for the first time during the last eighteen hours. Every time he’d loved her he’d thought about it, every time he’d kissed her he’d nearly given in, and every time she’d looked at him with her heart in her eyes he’d been beyond tempted to mark her as his. This time was no different, and Trunks just barely managed to only kiss her shoulder before tipping her chin up to force her to look him in the eyes. “Do you want me to make it better again?”

“I…” Yes. Oh gods, _yes_ , she wanted him inside of her again, whispering sweet, loving words in her ear, telling her repeatedly how beautiful she was, how good she felt, his voice husky and rough as he groaned her name in ecstasy. “No, it’s alright, Trunks. Like I said… it’s bearable,” Usagi replied hesitantly.

Huh!? She didn’t want him!? Did she think she was punishing him, maybe? Or was she trying to distance herself from him so that it would be easier to end it at sunrise? Did she want to end it now? Or… or maybe…

Thinking hard about what kind of a person Usagi was, Trunks realized exactly what was going on in her head and relaxed against her, sighing as he kissed her tenderly. She thought she was being a burden, that Trunks might think she was overly needy if she asked him for more, even though their time wasn’t up yet. She thought that he was doing this as some kind of friendship obligation, even though he’d confessed several times that he’d wanted her for weeks. She didn’t want to upset him or make him feel like he needed to do anything that he didn’t want to do… so maybe if he tried a different angle…?

“Usa?” Trunks murmured against her lips as he drew away just barely enough to speak.

“Yeah.”

Her voice wasn’t empty this time—a far cry from it—and when Trunks heard how choked with emotion it was he swallowed hard, amazed that so much feeling could fit in such a tiny blonde package. “I want you,” he whispered, licking his lips when she immediately shivered in response, the hand curled against his chest unfurling and stroking shyly over the tight muscles. Oh yeah, he’d definitely chosen the right angle this time; he knew she wouldn’t deny her desire for him if he voiced his own for her. “Let me make love to you again, sweetheart.”

“O—Okay. Do you want me to um… kiss you again? Down there?” Usagi asked shyly. “I don’t mind if you do… I kind of liked it, actually.”

Trunks felt his cock stiffen to the point that it was painful as he remembered how good her lips had felt wrapped around him, how she’d followed his coaching perfectly before going along with her instincts, bringing him to a forceful climax that had had him seeing stars for over a minute, but he shook his head slightly at the offer. The image of her sucking his cock was burned into his brain for eternity and he would have loved a repeat of the experience, but right then he just wanted to make her feel better, to erase the hurt she was feeling, even if it was only temporary.

He wanted to make her feel his love for her, for her to realize that he did in fact love her, that he wasn’t rejecting the idea of mating her because of something she’d done. That it was his father’s racism that kept him from taking her in the Saiyan way and making her his, and nothing else. He wanted to tell her his plan to get stronger than Vegeta, too, but he knew that to tell her could wind up being a bad idea. If they were rescued before he’d trained enough, it would be a huge disappointment for her, just as it would be if he could never reach level two Super Saiyan.

So he’d keep his mouth shut on the matter, and when he had finally trained enough, when he finally hit level two, he’d come to her and offer to mate her. Hopefully if and when it happened, she’d still want him. Hopefully she wouldn’t hate him for spurning her love for him.

“Maybe we can do that again before dawn, sweetheart,” Trunks suggested before kissing her again, purring loudly as he felt her emotion through the remnants of the partial bond, his hands gentle and loving as they stroked, petted and aroused her, his tail swishing about behind him to saturate the air in fresh pheromones. “Do you want me, Usa?” He asked once he’d rolled on top of her, his lips and tongue exploring the silky column of her throat. “All you have to do is say it, my goddess.”

“Yes,” she breathed, surrendering to the ache in her heart that was caused by her need to be one with him again, to feel him lazily thrusting inside of her once more as he whispered soft, romantic words in her ear. “I want you, Trunks. I _need_ you,” she added, her voice cracking as he made eye contact with her again and she saw his deep understanding, his clear knowledge that she loved him desperately and wanted nothing more than for this to never end. “Please, Trunks… I—I… _flia adai_.”

He’d deduced hours ago what she’d been saying in Lunarian, and Trunks knew all too well why she wasn’t saying it in Solarian—she didn’t want him to feel obligated or trapped, or risk angering him, or say it only for him to call an end to the greatest day in both of their lives. So he responded in the only way he could think of, crushing his lips to hers and devouring her with a passion they’d both only known with each other, nudging her legs apart with his knee before pushing his pulsing cock inside of her.

“That’s it,” he encouraged her when she broke the kiss to get some air, moaning his name, tears in her eyes as she moved in time with the slow, lazy rocking of his hips. “Come for me, sweetheart… you feel so good… you feel so perfect… so right…”

Usagi couldn’t have held back if she’d tried, that soft, raspy, desire-laden voice she loved hearing so much was setting her off quickly, and she dug her nails into his back and moaned her pleasure as she came for him, surrendering everything she was to him as he took her to heaven and back. “Trunks,” she whimpered as she came down, “you feel so good inside of me… don’t stop…”

“I won’t,” he promised, “so long as you tell me you’re mine.”

“I’m yours… I’ll always be yours,” she repeated for the fourth time that night, the truth of it ringing in his ears and making him purr and groan happily as he dipped his face to hers again to kiss her senseless, moving harder to take her up again, dialing it back only when she’d come down from a second earth-shattering climax.

“Gods… I want this,” Trunks practically sobbed as he drug his teeth briefly over her shoulder. “You’ve no idea what you do to me, Usagi… how _badly_ I want to sink my teeth into you… to make you mine… to just stay here with you…”

The entire night before and during the whole day that had followed, Usa had kept her promise to keep him from marking her, but his words made her tremble with emotion and she couldn’t stop herself when he bunched his fingers in her hair and he bit down just hard enough to bruise. “Do it,” she begged, “gods, Trunks… just please do it… make me yours… stay with me…”

“Fuck… Usa…” His voice was strangled as he warred with himself, his teeth finding home again when she whispered those Lunarian words once more, nearly puncturing the skin and sealing the deal. But Trunks somehow won out against his raging instincts and his desire to make her his mate and moved harder and faster to ride out the orgasm he’d spurred on when he’d bitten down, growling in frustration when he finally slowed back down to love her properly. “Gods damn it, woman, do you see what you do to me now? How hard it is for me not to just take everything? How much you mean to me? When the dawn comes, pretending that I don’t want you for my mate will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

Even in the heat of the moment, Usagi somehow managed to speak, hugging him tightly to her as they both continued to move, lost in one another. “Then don’t pretend,” she suggested softly. “You mean everything to me, Trunks… and I’m tired of pretending that you don’t. Let’s not pretend anymore.”

He hadn’t a clue how he managed to keep it together—to keep from biting her—but as he kissed her with every fiber of his being, Trunks felt tears in his eyes at her ardent response to it, how she was hanging onto him as if he’d fly away, how her touch had gentled even as her arms and legs gripped him tightly, her fingers trailing lightly over every inch of exposed skin she could find. “ _Tah’kha’or au_ ,” he choked out between kisses, half-hoping she’d understand as he had with her. _“R’sha… tah’kha’or au._ ”

As he spoke, she was coming for him again, a tear leaking from her glazed eyes as she wished with all her might that the dawn would never come, her hands trembling at the thought of being expected to never touch him or kiss him again. And thankfully he was coming with her, choking out her name like a prayer as he spilled into her, because once she could speak again she was asking him to stop.

“Sweetheart… what’s wrong?” Trunks murmured, his heart aching at the sight of so many tears staining her cheeks and the anguish in her eyes. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” she sobbed, “I just… I just can’t, Trunks! I can’t give this up at dawn, it’s too beautiful, it’s too perfect, and now that I know what it’s like… I just… I just _can’t_!”

“I don’t think I can, either,” he confessed as he pulled out of her and rolled so that they were laying side by side, his arms and tail drawing her tightly to him, summoning up a purr that was meant to soothe her ragged nerves and dry her tears. “Please, Usa… please don’t cry,” he whispered, feeling helpless when she only continued to weep into his chest. “You’re breaking my heart, Usagi. Damn it… I knew that this would be a bad idea, that—“

“Don’t be like that!” She said as she tried to pull away, only for him to hold fast and sigh into her hair. “I can’t help it that I want more than just friendship with you!”

“That wasn’t what I was going to say, Usagi,” he replied patiently. “I was going to say that I knew that it would be a bad idea because neither of us would be able to call an end to it. It’s not just you, sweetheart,” he added gently, “it’s me, too. You’re not the only one that wants more.”

“Then… then why can’t we just…” Unable to finish the sentence, Usagi looked up at him imploringly, her blue eyes wrought with pain, love and frustration.

“You know why. My father would kill you the moment we’re rescued and he found your shoulder marked.”

“Fuck your father,” she whispered heatedly. “I hate him. I hate what he’s done to you, how he’s treated you, and how even hundreds of millions of miles away, he’s _still_ influencing you. You’re more concerned about his opinion over something that he’ll possibly never even know about than you are with the possibility of alienating the one person left in the universe that knows you’re even alive. And I hate him for it.”

The fact that Usagi was even capable of hating _anyone_ with such conviction stunned the Saiyan prince, and it took him a full minute to process her words before he dared to speak, choosing instead to soothe her justified anger with a tender kiss, his hand cupping and caressing her face as he kept it gentle and light. “I need time,” he finally said once he could give her an actual answer. “I know that might be asking a lot of you, sweetheart, but can you give me that?”

“Time is something we have plenty of,” Usagi sighed sadly, silently reflecting that it also had a tendency to crawl at a snail’s pace on Five thanks to their lack of technological distractions. “How much do you want?”

“I… I don’t know,” he admitted slowly. “If I’m going to risk your life by mating you, Usagi, then I’ll need a lot of time to think it all over and plan on how I’m going to handle my father when the time comes. I’d feel a lot more willing if I had a solid game plan in place first. And it’s something I need to figure out on my own, without a ton of distractions,” he added grimly. “We won’t be able to do this again until then, sweetheart. Hell, I don’t think I’ll be able to make love to you again without marking you once Kio wakes up. That’s the only reason I managed not to during the last eighteen hours.”

Still weeping silently at the unfairness of it all, Usagi only nodded into his chest, holding him tightly, continuing to wish desperately for an easy solution to it all, for an easy solution to _them_.

“Please don’t cry, _atti_ ,” Trunks murmured, his own voice choking up at the sight of her tears. “Please. The last thing I ever wanted to do was to hurt you or disappoint you.”

She believed him. Even through her hopelessness and anger, she believed him, and Usagi squeezed him in a tight hug to convey that message. “So, you need time… what are the rules in the meantime?”

“Back to the way things were,” Trunks whispered in disappointment, already missing the way she held him while he was inside of her.

“We can’t even kiss?” She protested weakly, her voice cracking at the very thought. “But, Trunks, it’s just—“

“Kissing you makes me lose every bit of sense I have,” he confessed with a sigh. “Trust me, I don’t want to give it up, either, but I know I wouldn’t be able to stop kissing you and it would only end in us mating.” Trunks could see that his words weren’t making things better for her and stopped there, settling for letting his purr do its job, holding her close as he simply drew in her soothing scent and tried to think of a quicker solution other than his training. He couldn’t think of a single one, though; his father respected power, and the only way to gain his approval was to be stronger than him. Maybe if they were lucky, it would only take him a few days. “We still have a couple hours until dawn,” Trunks finally reminded her, hoping to maybe temporarily erase some of her sorrow by way of distraction.

“No thank you,” Usa replied softly, surprising him. “The burning’s bearable, Trunks, and… I don’t think my heart would survive making love to you again, not without the bite.”

“I’m sorry,” he said simply, running his fingers comfortingly through her hair as he wished that he was brave enough to just take her and worry about the consequences later. “May I still hold you?”

“Yeah. I’m going to get some sleep, Trunks. You should, too. Maybe… maybe it’ll all seem better when we wake up,” Usagi suggested, her voice somehow grieved and hopeful at the same time.

“Yeah… maybe it will be.” But somehow, Trunks doubted it.

###################################################

“Nope. Not jumping. Nope. Nope nope nope, uh-uh, _f’ri_. A thousand times _f’ri_.”

“While I’m thrilled you’re picking up the language, Usa, you can’t learn to fly if you don’t jump,” Trunks huffed impatiently. “We’ve been through this! You even told me five minutes ago that you would!”

Fidgeting at the edge, Usagi just looked at her fur boots and shrugged, looking like a little kid that had been called out. “That was before I saw the drop,” she mumbled.

“I’ll _catch you_ ,” Trunks repeated for the fourteenth time since they’d come outside, groaning as he ground the words through his teeth, trying his very best not to be annoyed with her as he flew closer and tipped her chin up to look her in the eyes. “Sweetheart… you trust me, right?”

After all they’d been through, did either of them really need to ask that question ever again? “Yes,” Usagi sighed, “but Trunks, my fear of heights doesn’t care about whether or not I trust you. I’m scared,” she confessed. “What if you miss? What if something goes wrong? I can’t feel you through the bond anymore, either, and honestly that’s mostly what scares me.”

The tears in her eyes did him in, and Trunks matched her sigh as he hugged her tightly, acknowledging silently that he was suffering from the lack of the bond, too. Gods only knew how many times he’d left the house over the last two weeks to train, frustrated by not only the lack of bond, but by the fact that he always wanted to kiss her and he couldn’t do anything more than hold her. And now that her estrus was coming up, he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d lose any and all restraint he had. The moment he smelled her fertility, it was all over. He’d take her, bite her, make her his, and his father could burn in Hell as far as his beast was concerned once it had usurped control.

“You wanna go up with me again like before?” He asked gently. “Will it help?”

“We can try, but I can’t make any promises, Trunks. I just don’t think I’ll ever be able to jump like that,” Usagi admitted. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a burden to you, and I know you’re getting tired of carting me around.”

Trunks sputtered at the sadness in her voice and kissed her forehead as he lifted them both off the roof of their home, adjusting when she automatically wrapped her legs around his waist and rested her head on his bare chest. “ _Atti_ , if I had a problem with it I’d say something. You know that. And I know you can jump, you did it when you thought I was hurt,” he added with a chuckle.

“That was different and you know it, Trunks,” she snorted with a thump to his chest with her fist, rolling her eyes up at him as she recalled how he’d tricked her. “I’d do anything for you in a situation like that and—“ Stopping herself short, she blushed brightly. “…er, you know what I mean.”

“I do,” he chuckled, “don’t sweat it. I’d do the same for you, Usa. But since you wanted to put it that way, let me point out that you learning how to fly could save my life if I get hurt out there. We might not be able to feel each other through the bond anymore, but we’ll still be able to track each other if we concentrate hard enough. You might even be able to sense if I’m in danger… and if that happens, I’ll need you to be able to save me. That worked, didn’t it?” He snickered when her expression turned grim and her eyes glinted with a determination that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

“Gods damn you,” Usa sighed, screwing up her courage as she held on tightly and looked down at the snow drifts thirty feet below them.

########################################

Still a little shaky from her flying lesson, Usagi enjoyed some alone time, reflecting  that she wouldn’t have wanted to leave Trunks’s side before the events of her mini-burning. Now it seemed like she took as much private time as she could, just as he did, and she wondered if part of that was because of the lack of bond.

“No… I’m still definitely in love with him,” she muttered to herself as she tugged her hood down further around her head to keep her ears and face warm in the bitter cold. “I just can’t be around him anymore without fighting the temptation to either yell at him for being pig-headed, or throw myself at him and beg him to make love to me again. I’m pathetic,” she whispered. “Well, at least I’ve admitted it in lots of video journals. Rei would probably agree with me.”

Usa shook her head at that, wishing that one of her sisters was there to comfort her broken heart, walking on in silence as she willed herself not to cry. Crying hadn’t fixed anything during the last two months, and it certainly wouldn’t start fixing things now. “I need to toughen up,” she sighed as she wandered through the woods aimlessly, positive that she could find her way back since they’d tested whether or not they could track each other.

Sure enough, it had worked, and Usagi had concentrated with all her might on feeling Trunks’s emotions, hoping blindly that she’d feel a glimmer of something on his end. But there had been nothing, only a vague knowledge of which direction she needed to travel in so that she could find him.

The sound of growling, hissing and barking froze her in place even as the disturbance froze her in place, and though she knew it was a bad idea, her curiosity got the better of her. _I wonder if it’s She. She could need my help if she’s in trouble._

 She knew the sound of a _wer’kha_ ’s growl and their signature hiss, but she’d never heard it sound quite so desperate before, nor had she ever heard that particular bark, either. And the trees that way were easy to climb, so if there was trouble that she couldn’t handle, she could easily scamper up one of them and yell for Trunks, right? Even if he didn’t hear her, she knew he’d come looking for her after she’d been gone for too long, so Usagi made sure her hood was fully covering her hair before quietly approaching the sounds in the deep snow.

                She was upon a dire fight so quickly that she nearly walked right into the middle of it, and thankfully she backed out just as a large creature struck the female _wer’kha_ it was fighting, grabbing her by the throat and shaking her, her blood spraying as it ripped her throat out mercilessly. The creature reminded her of a giant dog, but never in her life had Usagi seen one so large, nor had she smelled anything quite so bad in her life.

                The stench coming from it was simply vile—it was a mixture of rotten flesh and feces and blood, and it was only when it turned to feast that the princess saw the extra set of paws at its midsection, holding the remains of something long-dead in their grasp. _I guess that’s where it keeps its extra food stored,_ she thought, gagging at the wretched scent.

                She was turning to go before it noticed her—surely the thing would never catch her scent over its own—but the sound of helpless mewling caught her attention and she turned towards the head of the dead _wer’kha_ , only to spot a pile of black fur that was moving around too strangely to be one animal, the fur slick and damp and new. “Oh no,” she breathed, her eyes going wide as she put together everything that had likely happened just as the six-legged nasty-smelling creature turned its eyes to the litter of newborn cubs.

                “NO!” She shouted, momentarily scrambling for a plan when it turned its eyes to her and growled loudly. Doing the only thing she could think of, Usagi drew Trunks’s sword from her subspace and moved fast, putting herself between the mewling pile and certain death, her hands trembling as the horrible animal advanced, then retreated, eyeing the sword suspiciously. “Go or I’ll kill you!” She shrieked at it as loudly as she could, sounding far braver than she felt in that moment. “You got their mother! You can’t have them! They’re mine! _M’yo_!” She added for good measure, praying that this disgusting thing understood some Saiyan.

                Either it did and it just didn’t care, or it wasn’t nearly as smart as the _wer’kha_ , because it tried to sidestep around her to get to its goal, acting as if Usagi didn’t have a brain in her head. The princess immediately turned, though, and growled at it as best she could, knowing she sounded pitiful even though she was giving it her all. “I SAID **_NO_**! NOW BACK OFF OR I’LL RUN YOU THROUGH!”

                It was still coming despite her threats, though, and Usagi dove just as it lunged for the cubs, swinging the sword wildly, gagging at the putrid smell when she hit home and the blade ran right through its neck. She’d gotten a lucky shot and its eyes were wide in clear surprise even as it went limp and its vision dimmed, the life going out of it.

                Usagi promptly puked into the snow when she withdrew the sword, the odor finally overcoming her constitution, and when she could breathe again she was scrubbing the sword and her arms in some clean snow as quickly as possible, wanting nothing more than to rid herself of the blood that smelled just as awful as its owner did.

                More weak, scared mewling broke her out of her desperation to make sure she’d gotten the remnants of the sticky, thick black blood off of her skin, and Usa hurried to the dark pile of newborn _wer’kha_ , noting that their eyes were open and that they seemed fully alert as she hesitated to pick the first one up.

                They were about the size of full-grown cats, but there were four of them, and she was pretty sure that the fierce intelligence in their eyes could bode ill for her if they decided to fight her. But it was cold, they were only babies, and Usagi would never have it in her heart to just leave them there, especially after they’d lost their mother. “I don’t know if you can understand me,” she said softly, “but I’m going to take you to your own people. Alright? I won’t hurt you. Um… _f’ri ah_ ,” she added for good measure as she dared to reach for the one that was staring at her fearlessly.

                To her total shock, it started purring and it nuzzled her, and the princess smiled in relief as she unbuttoned her coat with one hand until it was opened halfway and tucked the cub inside, followed by each of its siblings until her parka bulged with a squirming, purring mass of young life. “Alright guys, I need you all to sit tight,” she said as she buttoned it back up and turned towards the north, shivering briefly more at the thought of how she’d be received by the _wer’kha_ than at the actual temperature.

                Thanks to a rare moment of common sense, Usagi gave a shout of greeting after a thirty minute walk, and when she heard a sharp response from deep within the trees, she stopped and tried her best to remember what little Saiyan she’d learned from Trunks. “ _T’uh She_! _Buh’tir, m’eh tar She br’atu_! _Wer’kha br’atu t’ai Ma_! _Bra’tu t’uh nu’or_!”

                Usagi had honestly thought that maybe the matriarch or another _wer’kha_ would come to take the cubs, but when nothing happened for several minutes, she scratched her head in confusion and opened her coat a bit to stroke the cub closest to the opening, smiling when it nuzzled her and purred even louder. “Seriously, if they don’t come to get you guys, I think I just might keep you,” she giggled. “You’re all so adorable.”

                A loud roar sounded right in her face then, and Usagi shrieked in terror, backpedaling and falling into the snow on her butt, her arms instinctively going around the kitten-puppy-bear cubs to cushion the shock that she felt running through her tailbone. “WHAT THE HELL!?” She shouted up at the massive, angry-looking female that was growling down at her, teeth bared and whiskers flaring. “ _M’eh nu’or br’atu_!” She added for emphasis, pointing down into her coat, hoping she’d gotten the words right.

                Apparently she had, because the livid matriarch instantly deflated, her eyes narrowing at the blonde and her whiskers drooping, and when the massive female stepped forward, Usagi stilled and stared up at her in a mixture of lingering fear and awe. “She, you should know better by now that I wouldn’t hurt your clan,” Usagi said softly. 

                “ _Mah’ni_ ,” the _wer’kha_ answered after a moment, the word coming out like a hoarse cough. “Ka’i _br’atu_. Ka’i _sh’fr_ … sister. Same Ma. Joo _cril_?”

                “Yes,” she sighed sadly as she opened her coat by a few more buttons to reveal just what was squirming beneath it. “Something disgusting killed their mother back that way,” she said, pointing back the way she’d come. “I can take you there if you’d like. Do you want to see? Ka’i _t’ai_ ,” she added sympathetically when She seemed to understand what had happened and made a pained expression. “ _M’eh nu’or br’atu_ ,” she repeated, pointing down into her coat. “Will you take them? I mean… you won’t kill them, will you, just because your sister’s dead? I’m not judging or anything, but your ways are strange to me, She, and I’m trying to understand. But if you’re going to kill them, then I’ll keep them and take care of them. It’s not their fault that their mother was killed.”

                That last part was spoken angrily, and her body language must have translated well enough for her, because the matriarch chuffed in what sounded like a laugh before stepping even closer and sticking her nose down Usagi’s parka to take a long sniff.

                The golden female hadn’t harmed her sister’s cubs and they seemed warm and content enough to stay with Osa Ge for the moment, but She wanted a better look at them to make sure they would survive without their dam to nurse them. “Open,” she grunted, tugging lightly at the parka’s opening with her teeth.

                “Oh, sure.”

                The cubs were too new to survive without milk. She’s sister had gone off to labor on her own—as was their custom—a week ago, and if they had been born five days ago or more, they would have stood a chance of survival on meat. But these were only a few hours old, and would not make it without a wet nurse to give them suck in their mother’s stead. “Is female with dead cubs. Name is Lo. She will take these new cubs. I think,” She amended, allowing that the grieving mother might shun them in spite of being offered a litter to raise as if the stillborns had never happened. “I take to Lo,” she stated once she’d mulled it all over, tugging Usagi’s parka further open for better access to her sister’s cubs. “I come back.”

                “Alright… you don’t need help carrying them all?” Usagi asked, wondering just how She would manage to carry all four of them at once without hurting them.

                What Usagi didn’t know was that _wer’kha_ were usually born two to a litter. Three or four wasn’t unheard and more was certainly possible—albeit rare—but a mother’s biggest problem with having more than two cubs was carrying them all, especially in the winter when they needed to be carried all the time through the deep snow.

                That was what decided her, and She nodded in favor of making two trips to the clan, holding Usagi with her piercing violet stare. “Joo stay close. No talking.”

                Floored by the fact that She was actually going to let her into the clan’s nesting area, Usagi could only nod, glued to the spot even when the matriarch began to move into the trees.

                “Come, Osa Ge.”

                That got her moving, and Usagi blushed in embarrassment as she caught up, holding the squirming cubs to her chest tightly as she followed in She’s wake, noticing the path through the section of forest that her and Trunks had never dared venture into. The walk wasn’t far at all, and one minute Usagi was hemmed in by trees as she had been since they’d started moving; the next she was in a clearing full of massive slabs of stone, all of them covered by white-pelted _wer’kha_ sunning themselves in the early afternoon sun.

                Either she was spotted or one of them caught her scent, because the tranquility that Usagi watched for a full minute was broken by a growl and a barked warning, and suddenly the large balls of white on the rocks became a silvery wall between her, She and the rest of the clearing.

                “Show them,” She ordered calmly, her accent heavy with her annoyance at being stopped. “Osa Ge. Show them _br’atu_.”

                Remembering She’s order not to speak, Usagi nodded and opened her half-closed parka just enough to give them all a good view of the squirming ebony mass within, while She spoke in the _wer’kha_ language, a stuttering blend of purrs, growls, syllables and grinding of teeth.

                “I tell them joo save cubs,” She translated once she was finished. “That no _ge_ attack joo or we kill.”

                “We?” Usagi hissed up at her in a whisper, too stunned to remember not to talk.

                “Jesh. We. They have seen us fight. Joo remember, Osa Ge. We kill all,” She rumbled with a note of pride and respect for the small goddess. “Joo fight goot. Strong _ge he_. Fierce. Protect what joors.”

                Well, when She put it that way… “I guess you’re right,” Usa said with a shy little smile. “Will they move?”

                “No,” another answered for She, her white fur flecked here and there by grey. “Lo come. Joo no move.”

                “Ke is elder,” She explained. “Ke. This Osa Ge. _Cha’dra he_. Osa Ge, this Ke, dam of my dam.”

                “Dam?” Usagi asked as she gave the elderly female a little curtsy of respect and received a deep nod in return, not knowing that Ke had also just given her the deepest respect possible, a great sign of esteem among their people.

                “Dam is Ma,” She explained patiently.

                “Ooooh, so she’s your grandmother!” Usagi said excitedly, beaming broadly as she studied first Ke, then She’s faces more closely. “You look like her,” she finally giggled, unaware that her breaking of the solemnity of the whole affair had angered a few of the _wer’kha_ watching, even while it amused the majority of them.

                This Osa Ge that She held in such high regard was obviously not afraid of them in the least, something they’d never seen from an outsider before; Saiyans always bared their teeth in fear or anger and either ran like cowards or tried to kill them, but this little female was only laughing at the most mundane things and acting as if she were among family.

                “Jesh, I look like Ke,” She deadpanned dryly, shaking her head briefly at the ridiculousness of the statement. Of course she looked like her dam’s dam, they were kin! But apparently this was something of amusement to Osa Ge’s kind, because she just laughed and smiled.

                “I look exactly like my Momma,” Usagi offered. “Only her hair’s silver while mine’s…” She swept back her hood then to show the mass of gold glowing softly in the bright sunlight. “Well, as you can see.”

                Ke was flabbergasted when she stepped forward and the little goddess didn’t so much as flinch, holding still for her inspection, and as the elder sniffed the loose strands mixed in with little braids and bone beads, she scented the moon and stars and huffed in surprise. “She, my apologies for my doubt,” she growled out in their native tongue. “The nose doesn’t lie. She is a goddess, as you say. What of the warrior that she protects?”

                “No, not a god. The prince of his people,” She answered respectfully.

                “I do not smell him on her. Is my nose getting as old as me, child?” Ke mumbled as she took another draw of Osa Ge’s smell, finding it laced only with something that smelled like flowers.

                “They are waiting until spring to mate. The way Trunks explained, Osa Ge can always get cubs. Too much risk during the cold season. They also bathe a lot,” She added. “Every day, they wash their scents away with something that smells like flowers. I know, it is very strange to me, too,” she chuffed when Ke looked confused.

                “Osa Ge, why joo wash so much?” Ke grunted in Solarian, too curious to stop herself from asking what might be a rude question. “Joo wash away smell of mate. Smell of battle. Smells that tell us joo are strong.”

                “Strong is right,” Usagi giggled. “The smells are strong! We take baths because if we don’t we start to smell bad! You know, from like sweat and dirt and stuff,” she elaborated when all of the visible _wer’kha_ only stared at her blankly. That was when she realized that she was doing what She had told her not to do and she blushed hotly, turning her face up to the matriarch. “Sorry, you said no talking. You know how I am, She.”

                “Jesh. Joo talk much, Osa Ge,” She agreed wryly. “Wash too much, talk too much.”

                With a strangled noise, Usagi realized that She had made a joke, and before she could stop herself she was laughing hysterically, on her knees from the force of it, holding the cubs tightly to her to keep them from spilling out of her parka. “And you growl too much!” She howled when She and a few others chuckled, their whiskers curling in in their version of a smile.

                Having broken the ice, the _wer’kha_ were more openly speaking with her, asking her questions about everything from her godhood to Trunks’s ferocity in battle, to the very same about her sisters back home. It went on like that until Lo appeared, having travelled from the far side of the clearing a mile away, moving slowly between her sisters, obviously weak from giving birth to her dead cubs.

                Even Usagi’s smile fell at the face of the grieving mother, and to She’s surprise, no one stopped her when she moved forward fearlessly and boldly ordered Lo to lie down, kneeling at her muzzle when the _wer’kha_ complied, too weak to do anything else. “I can’t give you back the babies you lost,” Usa whispered sympathetically, but I have these cubs here that lost their mother. Their dam,” she corrected herself. “Would you take them and be their mother? I’ll heal you as well if you like.”

                All of this was translated by She, who stepped forward and nudged Usagi’s parka open further once she was finished and Lo had asked to see Ka’i’s cubs. “She say Ka’i’s cubs are strong,” the matriarch translated, “and that she will give them food and raise them.”

                “Thank you,” Usagi whispered. “ _D’in m’yo_ , Lo.” She immediately began to use her light on the weakened female, cupping her furry jaw in her hand, oblivious to the way the _wer’kha_ were suddenly staring at her in awe. And when she was done she simply smiled and started pulling kittens out of her coat, moving to Lo’s side when She told her what to do, placing them against Lo’s full teats so they could smell the milk there and eat their fill.

                It took only a moment before they were all kneading their surrogate with their forepaws and purring loudly, the sound punctuated by enthusiastic sucking, and Usagi stood and fidgeted awkwardly now that her task was done. “Well… I guess I’ll be heading back now? Thank you for not eating me,” she giggled, “even though you would’ve only gotten a mouthful of hair.”

                “Osa Ge should be welcome to come back,” She rumbled in her native tongue to the females that had gathered since the goddess’s arrival. “Even if she were not a goddess, she still risked her own life to save our kin, when no one would have blamed her for turning away and running. She’s a strong warrior in her own right. She has slain many in battle that were much stronger than her, and her most recent opponent was a foul-smelling carrion eater four times her size, which she killed with only a blade.”

                “She didn’t use her goddess powers?” Ke asked curiously.

                “I don’t think there was time… and I think her powers require a very strong emotional trigger for her to use them,” She admitted. “So yes, she used only the blade to kill it, and it didn’t leave a mark on her in the process. I think that her strength and the fact that she’s aided us without a thought for reward should make her one of us. She doesn’t value material things like the Saiyans. She wastes nothing when she hunts, and what she can’t use she gives to the clan, even her first kill and her first victory in battle. She values family and deeds. Just as we do.”

                She wasn’t blind to the number of females and a few of the lesser matriarchs that openly scowled and disapproved of the suggestion, but she chose to ignore them in favor of the many that were purring out their agreements or stating that they trusted She’s judgment of character even if they weren’t completely on board with the idea. “Shall we discuss it?”

                “Phht… is it really such an important matter that the matriarch needs the opinion of the clan?” Lo chimed in blandly. “I am grateful to this Osa Ge, yes, but even if I weren’t, she is only one little goddess, and you vouch for her as well. There would be no harm in letting her in as a sister, even if she’s an outsider. We should trust in your wisdom, She.”

                “I think you have your answer,” Ke chuffed, her violet eyes dancing with mirth as many of the females present echoed Lo’s statement, that they would trust She’s judgment since she’d vouched for the goddess.

                “Did I do something wrong?” Usagi whispered when She finally turned to her, wringing her hands to keep them from trembling, afraid she’d said something to anger them. She’d heard the _wer’khau_ version of her name many times, and some of the females had seemed upset, so surely she’d committed some kind of faux pas?”

                “No, Osa Ge. Joo are now sister to us,” She stated evenly, dipping her head to lightly bump her forehead to Usa’s and then rub her furry cheek against her smooth, pale face, stepping out of the way when several others moved in to do the same.

                “This mean joo family,” Ke explained, fourth in line, her whiskers curling in when Usagi nuzzled her in return while tears welled up in her eyes.

                “Family… I’ve missed having a big family around me,” she choked out, moved beyond words as she caught sight of the growing line and returned the nuzzles and headbumps whenever the next _wer’kha_ bent down to welcome her as one of the clan. And when it was all done, the early afternoon sun had passed its apex in the sky, signaling that two hours had gone by, and Usagi hugged She tightly around the neck when the matriarch told her that she should head home. “I don’t know, it would be rude to go now, wouldn’t it?”

                “No, joo sister now. Not guest. Joo come and go,” She chuffed. “Joo vant me come with joo?” She offered.

                “Actually… yeah. I don’t think I’d be able to find my way back, even with the trail,” Usa admitted in embarrassment. “I can’t track smells like you can.”

                “Little goddess, little nose,” Ke remarked. “Go, joo watch and see, joo come back tomorrow.”

                Prepared to follow She, Usagi stepped towards the trail, only to stop when She crossed her path and laid down in front of her. “What? What’s wrong? Do we need to leave a different way?”

                “No, joo see path better high up.” Nodding towards her back, She was perplexed by Usagi’s wide, ecstatic, grin, but the _wer’kha_ was glad to have made her so inexplicably happy.

                “I can really ride on your back!?” Usagi squealed, scrambling up when She grunted, obviously confused by Usa’s excitement. “Oh, this is so cool! I’m so high up but I’m not scared!” She yelled happily when She stood, grabbing handfuls of snow white fur and using her knees to grip where she was sitting as if she was riding a horse.

                She started to move then, and Usagi realized that whenever they had walked together, the matriarch had slowed her pace by a good bit in order to let the princess keep up with her easily. Now She was moving at an easy walk, but she was eating up ground quickly, her smooth stride silent even in the underbrush. “I wish I could move without making noise,” she wished absently as she paid attention to the path, noting a few landmarks here and there before they broke out into the mating grounds. “Oh, I know where we are, now!”

                “Good,” She huffed. She’d still been moving very slowly by her people’s standards, and now that Osa Ge knew the way—

                “AAAAH! OH GODS SO COOL!” Usagi shrieked when She took off like a shot from a gun, moving faster than anything Usa had ever ridden before, the wind whipping through her hair and threatening to tear her from the matriarch’s back until she bent down low to hang on tighter.

                “I not even running fast,” She huffed when Usagi continued to squeal.

                “You can go faster!? Really!?”

                “Jesh, joo want go faster?” She asked mischievously.

                “YES!”


	17. Chapter 17

Usagi wasn’t surprised that Trunks had been drawn by the sounds of her squeals of delight, and she waved to him as they passed at a breakneck pace, hunched low over She’s back while the _wer’kha_ ran at full speed simply for Usagi’s enjoyment.

“That was amazing!” Usa exclaimed joyously when She finally slowed to a halt. “You’re so fast, but I barely even felt like we were moving except for the wind!”

“This is fun game in joor home?” She asked curiously.

“Actually, yes! But I’ve never ridden a horse that’s as fast as you!” Usa told her, waving at Trunks, who was flying towards them quickly with a terror-stricken look on his face. “What’s wrong?” She asked him when he darted closer.

“I saw that nasty dog thing, that’s what’s wrong!” Trunks ranted. “And the dead _wer’kha_ next to it, too, and your scent all over the place, but I couldn’t find you anywhere! And then I started to track you but you were apparently with She and the clan, which only scared the living fucking daylights out of me!”

“I’m fine, Trunks,” Usa assured him gently, her eyes serious as she took in how genuinely afraid he’d been for her. “That gross thing in the woods killed a female who’d just given birth, and I killed it with your sword and took the cubs to She. And they made me their sister,” she added, beaming brightly when Trunks’s mouth fell open in shock.

“They made you a sister to the clan,” he stated evenly, his voice far calmer than he felt at the moment.

“Yeah, is that a problem?”

“Jesh, Trunks. This is problem?” She echoed before curling her whiskers in and kneeling so that Usagi could slide off of her back.

“No, not a problem, just… wow. That’s really big, Usagi,” he whispered in awe when she came closer and he smelled hundreds of _wer’kha_ females mixed in with her scent. “You weren’t hurt during the fight were you?”

“No, I got lucky, actually. It came at me and kind of impaled itself on your sword. I’m really glad I forget to give it back the last time we bathed,” she added thoughtfully. “Here, you want it back? I cleaned it before I put it away.”

Seeing it in her hands filled Trunks with pride, and to his own surprise he slowly shook his head. “I’ll get it back when we’re rescued since it’s a family heirloom, but for now… you keep it. I don’t need it to defend myself, and you might need it again.”

“You’re sure?” When he nodded, Usagi gave him the first genuine smile she’d worn in his presence since the mini-burning and stowed the sword away in her subspace. “I’ll take good care of it, I promise.”

Observing the exchange, She noticed the tension—hell, how could anyone _not_ notice it!?—between them and frowned thoughtfully, wondering just what had happened while she’d been sleeping on and off with the clan during their hibernation. Something had gone on between them, something bad. It didn’t take a genius to figure that much out, but now that Usagi was her sister, She could ask what was wrong instead of pretending like she’d seen nothing.

With Usagi as her family, whatever bothered her was now She’s and the rest of the clan’s business, and the little goddess was going to find that out very soon.

#########################################

“So… how was your training?” Usa mumbled into his chest once they’d finished eating their _wer’kha_ steaks and a few of the vegetables that they’d harvested from the pots near the fireplace.

“I had some progress,” Trunks answered nonchalantly as he let his chest rumble in a quiet, soothing purr meant for her benefit, the same purr he’d used around her since the mini-burning, his own form of an eternal apology. “I can feel it sometimes, you know. The next level. It’s there, but it’s just out of my reach.”

“You need to find the trigger that your Uncle Kakarot told you about,” Usa suggested as she drew in his warm, masculine scent and lightly kissed his chest before she could think better of it. “You’ll get there,” she continued when he didn’t admonish her for the gesture. “I have faith in you, Trunks.”

“Thanks, sweetheart.” Wishing for the millionth time in the last two weeks that he could bend his head to kiss her lips, Trunks settled for pressing them to the sigil on her forehead and tightening his hold around her naked body. “That means a lot to me. So… what were the _wer’kha_ like?”

She’d told him about the fight in detail, as well as the cubs, Lo, and Ke, but she hadn’t really gone into detail about much else as she’d jumped excitedly from topic to topic only to geek out about riding She over and over again. “They’re something else,” she murmured. “I got the feeling that a few of them didn’t care for me at all, but they welcomed me into the clan all the same. That was really awesome, they all bent down and did this,” she continued as she slid up so that she was even with his face, bumping her forehead to his, then rubbing her pale cheek against his bearded face. “They said it means I’m family.”

“Well, I hope they’ll accept me as an annoying in-law,” he snorted, trying his best to ignore just how close their mouths were, her cheek still resting lightly against his. “I’d really love to see where they live and learn about their culture if they’d ever let me visit.”

“I’ll see about asking She, but not right away,” Usagi replied. “After all, they only just accepted me today, Trunks. I think it would be rude of me to try bringing you so soon.”

######################################

It was only just an hour after Trunks had gone out for his morning training that he came right back, sweaty even in only his loincloth, waving Usagi towards the hatch. “You’ve got visitors,” he told her with a grin.

The sight of She and several other females greeted her once Usagi was up on the roof, and she blinked in surprise. “Is everything alright?” She shouted down. “Do you need me to heal someone?”

“No, Osa Ge, we go hunt. Joo come?” She asked, grinning when Usagi’s face lit up and she nodded emphatically.

“Give me five minutes to get dressed!” The moon princess yelled back and scrambled back to the hatch, then down into the house to throw on her blood-stained furs so as not to ruin her good ones, choosing to leave her snow white parka behind in favor of using her ki to keep herself warm. She couldn’t do it for prolonged periods, but over the last couple weeks, Trunks had worked with her diligently, insisting that it could save her life if she got caught out in a snowstorm.

“Joo want ride?” She asked mischievously once the goddess had joined them, her bow and a quiver of Martian arrows slung over her back.

“Hell yeah, I’ll ride!” Usagi was on She’s back the moment the matriarch knelt, giggling and squealing when they took off through the fresh powder that had come down in the night, the wind whipping her braid from side to side even as She’s fur kept her warm.

The ride was much longer than Usagi had expected—over an hour—and she realized after the first ten minutes that riding She was a necessity. If the hunting party had been forced to walk to keep pace with the Lunarian, it would have taken them all day to travel such a distance, but with her riding, it cut their travel time down substantially. “Sorry I’m so slow compared to you,” she said with a bright smile once they’d slowed down to a walk.

“Gods give joo small legs, Osa Ge. Not joor fault.” They went into a forest then and slowed down quite a bit, and Usagi continued to marvel at how silently they all moved, not a single leaf crunching or twig snapping beneath paws as big as her head. “We be silent now,” She informed her.

Understanding why, Usagi nocked an arrow to her bowstring and sat up straight, her eyes wide and taking everything in, searching for any sign of prey. The _wer’kha_ must have smelled or heard something she hadn’t, because she didn’t even see any _ox’ana_ scat on the ground when they suddenly spread out, all of them focused on a single spot in the trees, stalking forward in a wide half-circle. 

“ _Jam’eht_ ,” She whispered back towards her rider. “Aim for eyes.”

Thrown off slightly by the movement of the beast beneath her, Usagi’s aim wobbled a bit once she’d drawn the bow and pointed it at whatever they were all staring at, but once she caught sight of the _jam’eht_ , her aim steadied.

It walked on two legs, not unlike a bear, but that was where the resemblance ended. It reminded Usa more of a dinosaur, except that it was covered in dark green fur that looked like moss, its tail topped by a spikey, club-like appendage.

And it was tall like a giraffe, its neck half the length, the rest of it fur-sheathed muscle and sinew. But luckily for her, its eyes were huge. “Come on, look at me,” she breathed to no one other than herself as she craned her neck and aimed her arrow in the general direction of its head. “Look at me, look at me, look at me…”

She stopped moving then, and only a moment later the creature looked down at Usagi and she let the arrow fly, praying for it to hit a heartbeat before it did, her face lighting up in triumph until the _jam’eht_ teetered in place, wobbled, then tipped over in their direction. “Oh shit!”

The matriarch had seen it coming, thankfully, and was already moving even as Usa spoke, paying attention to the smaller female hanging onto her back for dear life and careful not to roll out of the way or make any moves that might buck her off. “Joo good, Osa Ge?” She finally asked once their prey had crashed to the ground.

“Phew! Shit, that was close! Yeah, I’m good, though! Come on, let’s skin this thing, I’ve been dying for something other than the steaks we’ve been nomming on for a month! Trunks is gonna flip when I tell him that I killed this thing!” Usa continued, babbling excitedly as she drew her sharp skinning knife from her subspace, starting in on gutting the thing, only to stop when her blade met bone before she could even cut it. “What the…”

“Is why we take joo, Usa. _Jam’eht_ hard to kill. Tasty, good meat, but armored soft spots. Only kill shot is eyes,” She explained. “Joo sit. We skin. Joo got kill, joor work done.”

“Wait… so you only invited me to come because I have a bow?” Usagi asked slowly. “Wow… I don’t know whether to feel flattered or used.”

“Not use,” She chuckled. “Joo sister now. Use skill to feed clan. Joo good hunter, can take meat to mate.” Again, with that troubled look on Osa Ge’s face, her lips turning down in a frown at the very mention of Trunks. “Osa Ge… Trunks do bad thing? Joo mad at him.”

To tell She would mean explaining everything to her and her new sisters, including the fact that they’d lied to the _wer’kha_ from day one, so Usagi bit her lower lip and slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry She… it’s personal.”

“Joo _sh’fr_ ,” one of the other females huffed in chastisement. “She joo _ve’sh_.”

Apparently She’s status meant that Usagi had to tell her anything that was asked? “But… but you’ll be mad at me,” she whispered fearfully. “You’ll kick me out of the clan. And… and I don’t want that. I like having sisters again.”

“Why mad?” She rumbled as she stopped working on the _jam’eht_ carcass to give Usa her full attention. “And no kick. No kill. Talk. Tell me what Trunks did.”

“Trunks… Trunks and I lied to you,” Usagi whimpered, squinting her eyes shut as she waited for the blow that was sure to come from one of the paws that was bigger than her head. “We’re not mated,” she continued, eyes still closed when that blow didn’t come. “When we met you, Trunks and I were barely even friends; we’d been mortal enemies until the day before.”

Sitting back on her haunches, She had to admit that she was irked about being lied to, but she was more perplexed than anything. “Then why… why Trunks save joo? Joo enemy, why save?”

“Because I’d saved him the day before,” Usagi sighed. “He felt like he owed me, still. I think. And when rescue didn’t come, we realized that we needed each other in order to survive, so we agreed to cooperate. To be friends. And then… then I fell in love with him,” she finished softly, her hands trembling as she willed herself not to cry.

“Joo mate in spring?” She asked as she laid down to look Usagi in the eye. “Trunks love joo?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted dejectedly, “his father… his father hates my people more than anything. Trunks is afraid to mate me because he thinks his father will kill me the moment he sees my shoulder marked. Even after he—“ Usagi’s voice cracked then, and she looked up at She hopelessly, tears escaping her eyes.

“He took joo,” She rasped out knowingly. “Mark closed, joo needed. Trunks gave joo what joo needed. But no mate.”

“No… no mate,” the Lunarian whimpered. “He’s too afraid of his father’s reaction.”

While She understood a male’s need for his sire’s approval, she couldn’t help but sputter as she used her paws to pull her weeping sister in close and bump her forehead to the crescent on Usa’s, purring gently in comfort as she would for one of her cubs. “Joo good hunter, good female. Good hips. Make many cubs for him. Why care about sire? Sire not here. If sire come, joo fight him, win joor mate.”

“It’s not that simple, She,” Usagi sighed into the snow white fur, taking the comfort that was offered, glad to finally have a friend to talk to in the flesh. “You see, I’m Lunarian. Trunks is Saiyan. And our people have been at war for ten years. Even worse, Trunks is their prince—the next to rule when his grandfather dies… and me? I’m the princess of my people. My mother is the moon goddess, the matriarch of our people. Momma is our She, do you understand?”

“Jesh, I understand. Joor dam kill Trunks. Joo mate Saiyan, no honor.”

“Actually… no,” Usa murmured. “My mother would likely accept it. But our people? No. My sisters? Again, no. But I find myself not caring anymore, She… I love him. I want to be his wife. His mate.”

If there were other males around, She would have advised her to pay attention to them instead, either to make Trunks jealous or to make Osa Ge forget about him and find a mate elsewhere, but the fact remained that they were the only two of their kind on the entire planet. Maybe the little goddess could shun him somehow? “Joo come live with clan,” She finally advised. “Trunks no see joo, he miss joo. Want joo come back and mate.”

“It’s a good idea, She… but no. I’d only be miserable, too. And besides, I don’t like to play games like that. I love him and I want him to love me, too. No tricks, no manipulation. I don’t want to make him mad at someone just to get him to mate me,” she finished sadly. “I want him to come to me willingly, to tell me he loves me and that he wants me despite whatever his father might think. Maybe in time… I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Joo more patient than me, Osa Ge,” the _wer’kha_ grunted. “We want male, we take male. Male does not want female, male crazy. We very different,” She added wryly. “ _Wer’kha_ female does not cry for male. Male cries for female.”

“Yeah, we’re very different,” Usagi agreed, managing a watery smile at the genuine humor that they both found in the statement. “I think I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. Pretending that we never made love, that it never happened. It’s easier like that, to pretend.”

“Not easy,” She pointed out sagely. “Not easy when joo cry. Easy only if joo happy, Osa Ge.”

“You’re probably right, but I don’t know what else I can do, She. So, you’re not mad that we lied?” Usa asked, desperately wanting to change the subject.

She knew that things would have been very, very different if she’d killed Usagi or Trunks in the beginning—she wouldn’t have lost a mate or a number of her kinsmen during all of the resulting fights, but on the flipside, She wouldn’t have taken her new mate, who she was very fond of, nor would she have gained a new sister and a better understanding of a people that weren’t her own. “Time to be mad is done,” She finally replied. “Being mad does me no good. Rather be happy with new mate and new sister than think about what I can’t change. Joo tell me more lies?”

“No, She, that was the only lie we told you,” Usagi assured her, filled with admiration and respect for the _wer’kha_ ’s way of thinking, wishing that she could be more like her. “And there won’t be anymore, either. I don’t like lying.”

“Good. Osa Ge, joo still crying, joo come live with clan. Trunks miss joo. Want mate,” She offered again. “Wait and see.”

“Maybe,” Usagi hedged. “I’ll wait a few days, but I don’t see how it’d make him change his mind when nothing else has.”

#############################################

“Your grandson is a fudging idiot,” Serenity murmured for what felt like the millionth time since the mini-burning, shaking her head in exasperation as she handed the looking glass over. That was something else she’d done a lot of lately, so flustered by watching her daughter suffer silently that she simply couldn’t watch. If Vegeta hadn’t taken the mirror every time, she would have probably chucked it across the room in anger.

“Don’t worry, _r’sha_ , you have my full agreement on the matter,” Vegeta rumbled as he waved his hand to rewind the conversation with She so he could watch it in full. “The boy already confessed his love, so I haven’t a clue what his problem is.”

They’d only heard that on accident as they’d checked in on their heirs during the burning, and despite the fact that Trunks and Usagi had been in quite the compromising position, Serenity and Vegeta had stared at the screen blankly for a full ten seconds in shock before having the sense to turn it off, the former of the two blushing hotly and scrambling to shove the thing under her pillow once the glass was dark.

They’d heard Usagi’s response in Lunarian, too, and they’d both been positive that by the end of the burning there would be matching marks on both of their shoulders.

But no, when they’d checked in two days later, Trunks had been outside training and Usagi had been crying quietly in the house, drying her eyes and pretending as if nothing was wrong the moment he came inside for something. At night, she curled into him and held him close as if he was the dearest thing to her in the world, and during the day she acted as if her heart wasn’t breaking.

“Now I know why Setsuna said eighteen months,” the queen continued bitterly, envisioning her hands around Trunks’s neck as she knocked some sense into him. “At this rate it’ll be a year before they mate!”

“She said ‘babies,’ Ren,” Vegeta reminded her patiently as his heart ached for the princess pouring her heart out to the massive, stoic _wer’kha_ that was offering to let her come live with the clan. “It takes nine months to make one of those, and I highly doubt that Usa will birth twins. Too many complications with those, so Setsuna probably wouldn’t allow them to stay so long in that case. If my math is right, she’ll be in the third trimester with the second child when we’re finally allowed to rescue them.”

“I hope you’re right, Geta,” Serenity sighed as she flopped onto the bed. “I don’t think my heart can take much more of this.”

Noting her weariness out of the corner of his eye, the king paused the mirror and went to his queen, pressing his hand to the center of her chest to infuse her with some of his ki and lend her his strength, the same as he’d done since she’d given her daughter full power of the ginzuishou. “Better?” He asked knowingly.

“Yes, thank you. Maybe Rei will have a solution,” Serenity hoped aloud. “Mina should be bringing her any minute, so brace yourself for the screaming.”

“Aw, shit, was that today?” Vegeta sputtered, standing immediately and going to the closet, shucking off his armor and cape in favor of something less formal—and less imposing. The tight pants went too, after a moment’s thought, and it was when he was reaching for a pair of loose-fitting fatigues that he sensed Serenity’s eyes on him. “Is my queen enjoying the view?” He teased, glancing over to find her blushing hotly and looking at the ceiling as if he hadn’t caught her. “Oh, by all means, look all you like. Don’t let me stop you.”

“Sorry,” Serenity muttered contritely. “I… I don’t mean to tease or anything.”

“Ren, we’ve been through this,” Vegeta stated with infinite patience. “The fact that you even want to look is a good thing, and you’re not teasing me in the slightest. It’s not like you got down on your knees in front of me and started sucking me off and then left me hanging. It’s just looking, and it doesn’t bother me. I look at you all the time and you don’t have a problem with it… do you?”

Bright red at the thought and recalling the way his eyes always roamed her naked body with barely banked hunger, Serenity felt warmth pooling between her legs and wished she could find the courage to ask for her mate’s help with her arousal. They hadn’t been able to go beyond kissing, either, but she knew that Vegeta took some solace in that she was as randy as he was by the end of their little make-out sessions. That and the fact that she was letting him have any contact at all. “No… I like it when you look,” Serenity finally replied, her eyes shy and darting away when he strode over to the bed naked and sat, smiling down at her wryly.

“If there was time, I’d suggest both of us stripping down and having a nice long look,” Vegeta chuckled as he bent down for a brief kiss, the contact soothing him when she returned it and smoothed a hand down his bare chest. “Mmm… can I have more of that after Rei’s left?”

“Sure,” the queen sighed, giving him one more quick kiss before he went back to the closet to dress in something that wasn’t intimidating, letting her eyes roam him once more as she thought of how badly she wanted more with him physically. She’d gotten used to his arousals whenever they kissed at least, so while she didn’t balk at the feeling of him pulsing against her stomach, she always backed off when his lips travelled over her throat or her shoulder, setting her on fire and pushing her arousal to a point where it was nearly unbearable.

Vegeta had always stopped, too, no matter how badly he wanted her, no matter how strongly she could feel his need for her pounding through the bond. And when she finally worked up the courage to let him make love to her, she was going to repay him ten-fold for his patience.

###############################################

“But I don’t want you to go, Trunks!” Usagi yelled, raising her voice for the first time that Trunks could remember as she punched his shoulder, her ki spiking just slightly in her anger.

“Usa, we had this discussion last week!” Trunks huffed as he continued to patiently pack that damnable pink backpack he hated so much. “I need to go look for help once a month, and I’ll only be gone for three days, just like last time! If I hurry I can be home in two! This decent weather isn’t going to hold long so I need to take advantage of it while I can, knowing that you’ll be safe from any blizzards and able to come and go from the treehouse as you please.” Not to mention the fact that she was just starting to go into estrus again, which partially explained her hormonal, emotional reaction.

“Trunks, are you sure you’ll be able to track me from so far away?” Usa asked worriedly. “I know we’ve tested it from a hundred miles away, but you’ll be thousands of miles out and what if something happens?”

“I’ll be able to track you,” Trunks assured her. “There’s enough residue of the partial bond left that I’ll be able to find you… maybe even enough to sense if you’re in trouble.” Stepping close and touching his forehead to hers for the first time in days, the prince sighed when her eyes filled up with tears and her lower lip quivered slightly. “Sweetheart…” He hadn’t called her that in a while, either—sticking to her name in an effort to push her away a little, and his heart ached when the endearment brought a small smile to her face. “…I’ll miss you, too.”

He’d missed the way she still curled into him at night, her arms wrapping around him as she pressed her nude body to his and idly ran her fingers along his spine. Something had changed in the way she sagged into him at night, and while he couldn’t pinpoint the exact time, he knew it had been a few weeks. Towards the end of the blizzard, probably, but before the night that he was still trying to stop recalling due to the painful arousal he was left with whenever he remembered her soft cries of ecstasy. He wasn’t complaining though, he wouldn’t have changed it for the world, and it felt nice to have her snuggling against him and clinging to him like it was the last thing she’d ever do.

And as much as he would miss it, he knew he needed to leave before the scent of her heat got too strong and he lost every ounce of willpower he had left. He’d ached to kiss her so badly over the last two weeks that it was starting to physically hurt him, even with his beast behaving and just sitting back and watching the entertainment. He was done if he kissed her, though, he knew it for a fact. His willpower was already threadbare as it was, and one taste of those sweet, plump lips would be his undoing. He’d take her, mate her, and he knew there wasn’t a chance in hell that she’d ask him to stop. Oh no, she’d eagerly arch into his every thrust, she’d moan his name, she’d clutch at his back and dig her nails in just the way he liked it—

“Trunks?” Usagi whispered softly, her eyes filled with worry as she watched, assessing the way his entire body was visibly trembling and how his tail was trashing in agitation.

“I… I should go,” he replied hoarsely, shaking as her fertile scent made it impossible to think of anything else except for burying himself in her to the hilt. “Be safe, call She if you need help or if you feel lonely. I…” He paused there, swallowing hard, catching himself before he said the one word he knew he could never say to her, the one word that he ached to finally say, as if one little single-syllable word would right all wrongs and fix the universe. “I’ll miss you, Usagi.”


	18. Chapter 18

“No, Osa Ge. Joo sleep me,” She rumbled as she led her through the clan and towards one of the shallow caves that they all slept in during what the _wer’kha_ deemed to be good weather. In bad weather, they all slept in a tightly packed circle to keep warm, but tonight was considered mild even if Usagi would have been shivering without her parka, so everyone would sleep with just their immediate families.

                “Are you sure?” Usagi asked softly. “Ke offered to let me stay with her, and I wouldn’t want to impose upon your mate. I know the males don’t like me much,” she added, slightly hurt by the way they’d all either avoided her or ignored her.

                “Many males like joo, Osa Ge,” She chuffed as they went deeper into the clan’s territory, drawing closer to a large rock wall. “No males talk joor words or talk much Saiyan. So no talk to joo.”

                “Oh, ok.”

                She’s whiskers curled in in a _wer’kha_ version of a satisfied smirk upon seeing the way Usagi brightened a little, and happy to wipe that dark look from the goddess’s face, the matriarch continued on proudly. “ _P’eu m’yo_ ,” she rumbled once they reached a large opening towards the end of the rock face. 

                It was close to the edge of the end of the defendable territory, and She knew that if there was an attack she’d be one of the first caves invaded by an enemy, but she didn’t see it that way. Not at all.

                The way She thought of it, she’d just get first dibs on the slaughter. If anyone was dumb enough to actually attack the largest clan den on that side of the world, then they deserved to be ripped apart by She the very moment they dared to attack her people.

Other matriarchs in the past had opted for caves closer to the center, hemmed in by the protection that the clan offered. But not She. She was still young and vital in comparison to those dusty old matriarchs of yore, and still plenty capable of wrecking the ever-living shit out of anything thrown her way.

                More than happy to do so as well.

                “Come. Be welcome,” She pressed when Ose Ge hesitated at the threshold, likely as a result of She’s mate rearing his head and staring at her in mild surprise. “This Vo. My mate.” Switching to her native tongue, She addressed the male in question. “Don’t growl around her, she thinks all the males hate her because you can’t speak her language or Saiyan,” she chuckled.

                Chuffing lightly at the hilarity of such a thing, Vo nodded. He hadn’t been happy at first about his new mate’s choice of very unexpected allies, but after long discussions with She about Osa Ge and Trunks, he’d been convinced that they would be an asset, and that the little goddess would be a staunch friend to She. “Come,” he growled out, imitating She, “ve velcooom.”

                Delightfully surprised by the invitation from Vo, Usagi beamed and entered the cave immediately, looking around with wide eyes, soaking everything in.

                It was clean. Very, very clean. Amazingly so. And the walls were coated in fur and the floors—“She… may I ask a question?” Usagi said slowly, turning those inquisitive blue eyes to her hostess. “It might be offensive, though.”

                “No bad if asked honestly,” She said matter-of-factly. “ _Wer’kha_ and Lunarian different. Joo have strange ways. I ask joo if I think joo strange. Like baths every day,” she added with a friendly purr as she settled down against Vo and he snuggled into her much larger, muscular frame, his chest rumbling like an old car engine.

                Usagi took a seat at that, encouraged by She’s words, and gestured around to all the fur. “You wallpapered your home in your people’s skins?” Oh gods, wrong choice of words, now she couldn’t get the sickening thought out of her mind—one where they did the same with Lunarians after they’d died. Ew. Goddamnit, why did she have to word it like that?

                “Ah,” She sighed in understanding. “I tell joo before. No waste. To waste is insult to the dead. Big insult. Disrespect.” Rising from her place, she gave Vo a playful nip when he grumped briefly over their snuggling being interrupted, and went to one snow white fur that was larger than all the rest. “This my dam. My dam was She, like me. On my wall, she keeps us warm. Protect from cold. Even in death, still have purpose.”

                “And that’s why you eat the meat of your own people, too,” Usagi said slowly. She’d thought about that more than once, but afraid that she would insult the matriarch, she’d skirted the subject. “Back home, we call it cannibalism. It’s very, very taboo to eat one of your own people.”

                “Tch, taboo? No. Is good meat, why waste? Why let a sister rot? When I die, I want to feed the clan. Keep them warm,” She replied calmly as she settled down against her mate again, snorting humorously when he nuzzled her and started purring loudly once more. Vo was definitely more affectionate than any previous mate, and if that didn’t fizzle out after a few years, She knew she’d have a keeper. Not just a seed donor for more cubs come spring. “When I die,” she continued, “I protect my clan. Protect and feed my sisters. This great honor to me. I am big, I will feed them for many days, Osa Ge. No hungry cubs.”

“When you put it that way, it’s not bad at all,” Usa murmured thoughtfully. “But I think I’ll abstain from eating one of my sisters back home if something happens.”

 

At that, She could only laugh, and when Osa Ge moved to set up her bedroll along the other wall, she made a noise to get her attention and waved her over. “No, joo come sleep me and Vo,” she corrected her. “Joo sister. Fam-lee.”

Noting her hesitation, Vo tried for an encouraging smile and purred louder for the little golden-haired goddess’s benefit. “Joo? Joo come?” Then to She in their language, “did I say that right?”

“Yes, you said it right, my warrior,” She purred out in approval, nuzzling and nipping at his throat lovingly, lingering when he exposed his neck to her in submission.

Still Usagi hesitated, but not out of fear. “Um… She, I can leave if you want?” She offered, raising her eyebrows and nodding towards Vo when her new sister looked at her in surprise. “You know… if you want some privacy?”

“Privacy? Why, Osa Ge?” She rumbled in confusion.

“Um… you know.” Usa was blushing now and fiddling with her bedroll, glancing to the exit for a moment before looking back to She in the dimming light. “If you wanted some alone time with your mate?”

“Alone time?” She’s confusion only grew, but the matriarch was far from stupid and noticed Osa Ge’s blush, recalling that the goddess only turned bright red whenever certain subjects came up. Usually Trunks… and mating.

“What? What did I say!?” Usagi squeaked when She burst out laughing in a something that was so similar to a roar that the princess would have probably peed herself if she didn’t know it for what it was. “What’s so funny, She!?”

Vo was asking the same thing, his expression blank as She literally roared with laughter, in complete and total hysterics—something he had never seen in his three hundred years. He honestly didn’t think _anyone_ but maybe Ke had seen such a thing before. “My moon? What’s so funny!?”

“She thinks we’re going to mate!” She shrieked, still laughing loudly—loud enough that Ke was appeared at the entrance to the den a few moments later, staring at them quizzically, wanting to share in on the joke, but just as clueless as Usagi. “And… and she thinks we need privacy for it!”

That got Vo rolling as well, but Ke only huffed and rolled her eyes disapprovingly before stalking in and nipping at her granddaughter’s tail. “No tease Osa Ge. Some creatures mate in private. Saiyans do. I think gods do, too. Jesh, Osa Ge?”

Ooooh, so that’s what was so funny. “Yes, but… wait. You do it in front of _everyone_!?” Usagi asked loudly, unable to keep her volume down thanks to her total and complete shock, her face burning hot at the idea of her and Trunks… _no, no, don’t think like that. It’ll never happen again and you know it, Usagi. He said he needed time, but… you know better. It’s better not to even hope._

She was suddenly grim, sure that she knew what her sister was thinking about, reading her facial expressions like a book as mortified astonishment quickly gave way to sorrow, those typically bright blue eyes filling with tears. “Osa Ge,” she sighed sympathetically, “come. Joo sleep. Better in sunlight.”

Ke didn’t even wait for Osa Ge to comply, she was already stalking forward and clamping down on the tough fur of the goddess’s parka, carrying her like a cub even when she flailed in a brief panic and protested weakly. The blonde was promptly settled between She and Vo, and the moment she popped up and tried to speak, Ke was ready for it and nudged her back down into the warm nest of fur and solid muscle. “No. Time sleep, Osa Ge. No cry for Trunks. Joo sleep with sister, brother and grand-dam.”

Before anyone could ask what she’d meant by that last bit, Ke shoved her way into the pile and wrapped herself around the bewildered princess, purring loudly as she headbumped her and then rubbed her cheek to the soft, hairless jaw that was quivering with unshed tears. Another followed from Vo, and then another from She as the biggest in the cat-wolf-bear pile leaned over Ke to join in.

Usa felt loved then and sagged into the embrace of her new family, giving up any resistance she’d previously had.

But she still cried herself to sleep, even when she felt a large tongue licking her tears away.

#####################################

                _Trunks… my Trunks._

_All yours, sweetheart._

_Make love to me._

_I want you._

_I need you._

_I want this… gods, I **want** this…_

_Don’t stop… make me yours…_

_I want this…_

_Flia adai._

_Tah’kha’or au._

_I love you._

He didn’t remember actually hearing it, but the mind was a funny thing, and as Trunks jerked awake in a cold sweat, he was convinced that he had. A hundred-percent positive. She’d said it at some point, likely when he’d been out cold, but he somehow knew that wasn’t the case either.

                It had been in the twilight of sleep and awake, just as he’d been slipping into a dream. He didn’t consciously remember it, but she’d said it all the same, and he knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

                There was no way he could go back to sleep after that, so as he kindled a fire, Trunks considered going back to her, missing her terribly in the long, dark hours that came before dawn. Missing the way she smelled, the way she held him like she was afraid he’d run away— _who could blame her for thinking that_? _I wouldn’t_ —but most of all missing her presence and the way she lit up the room just by being there. Missing the way she centered him, made him whole. Missing the way she loved him despite his many flaws.

                “I’m surprised you’re not chiming in.”

                _Don’t have to,_ Kio muttered, _you’re doing a fine job of missing her all on your own. She’s not at the house, either. She’s further. Not by far, but not home._

The flames that Trunks was coaxing higher were finally at a height that was acceptable for cooking something, and he sat with a sigh. “She’s with the clan, you know that. We knew she’d go there, and that’s fine by me. She will keep Usagi safe. More importantly, she’ll keep her company. And I have to admit that I’m jealous of your ability to sense her location so acutely.”

                _Try clearing your mind of all the garbage for a change and it’s not that hard, even with only remnants of a bond to work with_ , Kio huffed. _I can even tell that she’s sleeping. Fitfully._ _I’ve been concentrating hard on her all night._

Trunks didn’t even have to ask why; Kio missed her just as fiercely as he did. “One more pass around the southern end of the planet. Then we’ll go home,” he decided, feeling Kio relax, just now alerting him to how tense his beast had been in the first place.

                _Thank you._

######################################

                Even when the _jam’eht_ fell neatly at her feet, Usagi could only muster the faintest of smiles in response to the praise from the hunting party she was travelling with. “Will three be enough?” She asked instead as she slid down from She’s back and went to the carcass to retrieve her arrow, swallowing down the usual faint urge to vomit when she plucked it from her kill’s eye.

                “One more,” She intoned, chuffing in amusement when Ose Ge gagged a bit while shaking some brain matter off of the arrowhead. “Joo ok?”

                “Ew, She,” Usagi replied blandly, wiping the arrow on the rough, mossy hide of the _jam’eht_ before putting it away in her quiver.

                “Ew? Like pee this morning?” She couldn’t help but laugh at the memory, and so did several in the hunting party that had witnessed Osa Ge’s small meltdown at dawn.

                Needing to pee, Usagi had gone in search for a suitable spot, only to be pointed towards the woods with directions. The _wer’kha_ kept their dens very clean, and it hadn’t even crossed her mind until then that she hadn’t seen a single pile of dung anywhere. They all did their business out in the woods, about a half mile downwind, and when she reached it she could only gag at the smell. “EW!” She’d yelled at the sight of poop everywhere, some of it old, some of it new. “EW EW EW SO GROSS! I’M NOT PEEING HERE!”

                The moon princess had gotten away from there as fast as possible and had marked her territory near a tree, and when she’d returned it had been to hysterical laughing from her new sisters, who had all heard her shouting with their superior hearing.

                “Ew, no! The brain isn’t that gross! It’s just regular gross,” Usagi answered with a roll of her eyes. She knew when She was trolling her, now—one full day with the matriarch had shown her that She actually had a very wicked sense of humor. The only problem with it was that it reminded her of Mako and Haruka and made her fiercely homesick. _I’ll make another video log today,_ she decided as she stayed out of the way, letting the hunting pack do the job of skinning and cleaning their freshest kill.

                “Joo miss Trunks?” She rumbled from behind her, nuzzling her shoulder and purring in comfort.

                “Yes, but… it’s not that, She. I miss my sisters,” Usagi whispered sadly. “You would have liked them. Maybe one day, if we ever get rescued, I can bring them back here to meet you.”

                “Jesh, would be good, Osa Ge. Joor sister, my sister. Joo sister are clan.”

                “Heh, you might want to rethink that, She. I can think of at least three of them that would move in to stay on a permanent basis, and Mako would drive you crazy the moment she learned that you eat everything raw. She’d be forcing you to eat culinary masterpieces as soon as she could get her spice racks out.” It was supposed to make them both laugh, but Usagi only felt tears in her eyes at the thought, instinctively reaching for Trunks through the bond… only to not feel him there. Just that vague sense of direction.

                “Joo go, Osa Ge. Come, I take joo. We kill _jam’eht_ later.”

                Usagi wasn’t about to argue, not when She was licking the tears from her face as they continued to leak from her eyes, and when her sister plucked her up and settled her gently onto her back, the princess simply hung onto her. There was no joy in the ride like there had been in all the others; she missed her sisters, she missed her mother, and most of all, she missed Trunks.

                “I just want to go home.”

###########################################

                “Damn it, she’s not home,” Trunks mumbled as he tried his best to use the remnants of the bond to track her. She was close, but because the bond was so weak, he couldn’t exactly pinpoint her. His mind was just too cluttered with everything else, and he didn’t bother asking Kio, knowing that Usa was likely with She. “Oh well, she’s safe, that’s what matters,” he decided, even though he was disappointed that she hadn’t been there to greet him with a relieved smile, a hug, and an inquiry as to why he was home after only being gone for one full day.

                “Not just because I missed her… but because it’s pointless,” he finally acknowledged, knowing that she was going to be devastated to hear that he’d completely lost hope of being rescued unless they were discovered by accident or by a party of Saiyans training on Five.

She would cry the moment he expressed his dwindling hope of rescue, so Trunks flopped down on the bed and sighed heavily, trying to think of some way to break the news to her, to lessen the blow somehow, and rolled over, his hand searching blindly for the pillow behind him. Gods, he didn’t want to see her crying. Not again. Not ever.

                _Flia adai._

_Tah’kha’or au._

_I love you._

                “I love you too,” he finally dared to confess, breathing deeply into the pillow once his face was buried in it, part of him wishing she’d heard him. That thought didn’t stick with him for long though—she was still in estrus, and that fact hit him like a sack of rocks as his pupils dilated and his cock hardened beneath his covering, his hands gripping the pillow hard as he emitted a soft groan of desire.

The scent wasn’t just strong. It was overwhelming. And try as he might, he couldn’t resist breathing in that intoxicating aroma once more, catching himself on his third inhalation. 

“Shit… oh gods, I need to go back out and just act like I’m searching for a couple more days… I can’t take this. I’ll wind up mating her, I know it.”

                Opening his eyes as he rolled over, they were immediately drawn to her face, the image flickering on the screen of the little computer that rested on top of the bedroll she’d probably taken with her to the clan’s den. Her eyes were red-rimmed and filled with tears, her cheeks wet and her expression miserable, and Trunks stuttered out an instinctive purr of comfort. Reaching out, he couldn’t help but caress the screen as if he could wipe her tears away, only to blink when her face vanished and a loading screen popped up. Loading…? Loading what?

                “Hey, Rei,” Usagi’s voice whispered as her face reappeared, this time tear-free even though her expression was forlorn. “I know I just made you a video message after I got back from the hunt, but I’m lonely, so I figured you could just skip over this one when you finally watch all of my videos.”

                “I should turn this off,” Trunks realized as he watched her fluff her fingers through her hair and sigh, his eyes transfixed on the overwhelming sadness in the blue pools and the way they were beginning to fill with tears, making him ache to hold her close and fix whatever was making her so unbelievably sad.

                “I love him so much,” she choked out, “and I know you’ll think I’m pathetic, Rei, but I just can’t help it. Every time I look at him I just want him… I want him so badly that it hurts. It physically hurts, Rei, and I just don’t know how to tell him. I just don’t know what to do,” she whimpered. “If I tell him he’ll only push me away, and while I understand that he’s afraid of displeasing his father or of me getting hurt when we’re rescued, I honestly just can’t be bothered to give a shit about that anymore. I care that he wants to make his father proud, and my heart breaks for him when he talks in his sleep about Prince Vegeta, but I can’t help but feel selfish and just wish that he’d stop worrying about it.

                “I’m not stupid,” she continued softly. “I know that rescue isn’t coming anytime soon. We’re stuck here for an indefinite amount of time, and with every day that passes it just hurts more and more not to tell him how much I love him. I never felt this way about Endymion… not even close. I never wanted to kiss him or hold him…” Her face colored brightly then and Usagi wiped at her eyes before finishing her sentence. “…or make love to him. What I feel for him goes beyond anything physical, but I really want that part of it with him, too. I find myself thinking constantly about what it would be like to be mated to him, to marry him, to have his babies and to grow old with him, but… I know he doesn’t want that. No, he does, I know he does. He just can’t get over what his father will think. Gods… I hate his father. Imagine that… me hating anything or anyone. Well, I do. And I honestly can’t say I feel very sorry about it right now, Rei. You know why? Because when we’re finally rescued and we have to go back to our own planets, I think it’ll _break_ me. I don’t want to leave his side. Ever. Hell, _look_ at me, Rei,” Usagi chuckled humorlessly. “We’re on the same planet and he’s only been gone a day, and I’m a gods damned wreck. I swear, I’ll never wish love on you again, not after watching my past videos and seeing what it’s doing to me. Thank the gods he’ll never see these, even though I sometimes think he should, especially since She’s offered to let me come stay with the clan on a permanent basis.”

                _The clan? Why in the hell would she stay with the clan?_ Trunks wondered as he watched Usagi sigh again and the video stopped playing, feeling a swell of jealousy welling up inside of him, pushing past his shock and heartache at hearing her soul-wrenching confession of love for him. He’d known that she loved him, yes, but to hear it spoken with such emotion, conviction and longing made him rethink his choices regarding them possibly mating.

                “I can’t,” he whispered, the words sounding hollow and pathetic to his own ears. He wanted it more than anything, Trunks couldn’t deny it anymore. He wanted everything she’d just talked about and more—he wanted to never stop waking up with her curled into him, to see her smile up at him as she roused from slumber, her eyes sleepy and full of love, her warmth pressing to his enticingly. He wanted to watch her body change as his child grew inside of her, to hear her sweetly whispering in his ear as he mated her leisurely amongst the furs on their bed. He wanted everything she had to give him and he wanted to give her everything he was in return, to build a life with her, to grow old together, to watch their children mate and marry and have children of their own. “I can’t,” he repeated weakly, choking on the words as his heart clenched at the thought of never having any of that with her, of continuing the charade that he didn’t love her until rescue came.

                That thought froze him, and Trunks swallowed hard at what would happen when rescue _did_ finally come. She was right. Absolutely right. They’d be separated and taken to their respective planets—if whoever rescued them didn’t kill one of them out of instinct. They would never see each other again. Ever. Both of them would eventually wither and die, longing for each other, never able to get past the fact that he’d had every opportunity to make it permanent.

                If he bit her, if he mated her, no one would be able to take her from him. Or him from her. His father would try to kill her, yes… that was guaranteed. But he was stronger than Vegeta now, wasn’t he? The fight wouldn’t be quick, but he would win.

                “And rescue isn’t coming. Not anytime soon,” Trunks whispered before burying his face in her pillow again and groaning at the thought of taking her slowly, of drawing it out, fixating on how it would feel when she sunk her teeth into his shoulder as she climaxed. “I’ll be level two by the time anyone finds us. I’ll be able to kill him if I have to.”

                _About fucking time,_ his beast grumbled, having stayed silent thus far in order to let Trunks draw the obvious conclusion on his own. _I don’t suppose you want to go tell her about your stunning revelation and mate her, would you? Like… right now, perhaps? Pretty please? I’d definitely love to get on that babymaking part that you both seem to want so much._

“I… I…” He couldn’t even process his beast’s snarky remarks at the moment, so he just nervously ran his fingers through his thickening beard and rolled out of the bed, climbing to his feet. _Usagi._ That was all he was capable of thinking, even when his beast cracked another triumphant joke.

 Licking his lips at the prospect of finally mating Usagi and wondering what her reaction would be when he found her, Trunks launched himself out of the hatch without even thinking about it first, casting around in every direction, trying to figure out where she’d gone. It was unseasonably warm and all of the snow had melted in the last week, so she could be anywhere.

                _Focus, boy,_ his beast chuckled when Trunks suddenly could think of nothing else except how she would feel in his arms, their naked bodies gliding together as he loved her slow and deep, what her voice would sound like as she moaned her pleasure and came for him repeatedly.

                “Can’t help it,” he murmured, his cock rigid beneath his loincloth. “I’ve denied the idea for so long that… gods, I can’t take it anymore, Kio! I need her so badly right now that I can’t even think of anything else!”

                He wasn’t exaggerating, either—everything he was was screaming at him to find her, to bite her, to ease himself inside of her physically and mentally and to never, ever leave her again. To give in. To give up. To just surrender to the pull and to her, to bare his throat to her in total trust as she accepted him into her heart and her bed.

                Everything _except_ for Kio, that is. For once, his beast was actually trying his best to calm him down.

                _Try the lake,_ his beast suggested patiently, its mirth tangible even though it was actually trying its very best not to act like a smug douchebag over such a huge victory. They were finally going to mate their true, destined life partner, so Kio didn’t want to ruin the moment with gloating, choosing instead to aid the young warrior in order to join with Usagi sooner rather than later. _Am I going to need to rein you in for this?_ He added with mild concern when Trunks took off like a shot for the water without any further thought, his thoughts a jumble of raw sexual fantasies and sweet confessions of love. _I’d hate to pull rank on you and shove you in a cage, boy._

Trunks hadn’t even realized that he was moving at top speed, but when he did, he didn’t stop, his heart pounding at the thought of hearing her saying ‘I love you’ with his own ears, his Saiyan blood singing at the thought of just simply pressing his lips to Usa’s and feeling her return the amazingly arousing, foreign gesture of affection that her people practiced. And then if she was agreeable, he’d move on to Saiyan kissing and—

                The prince skidded to a halt in mid-air when he saw her in the field just outside of the woods, picking winter berries from the vines twining around the low-hanging fruit trees, her back to him as she pulled herself up onto a branch and hauled the basket after her.

                There she was. His for the taking if he approached her. Surely, he couldn’t go about this the traditional Saiyan way, though; he couldn’t just swoop in and take her to the ground and bite her and fuck her. No, she wasn’t Saiyan, she didn’t stand a chance in hell of fighting him off. Taking a Saiyan woman in that way was fair; any Saiyan woman worth her salt could fight off a male if she didn’t want him, and if she couldn’t fight him off, she knew for certain that no male would force himself on her if she really, truly didn’t want him. The right choice phrases would assure him that she was definitely not interested, and all Saiyan females knew what to say should that scenario ever occur.

                But Usagi wasn’t Saiyan. Usagi didn’t know those things. If he just flew in and pinned her down it would scare the life out of her; she wouldn’t understand that it was a good thing, that it meant that he wanted to take her to wife, that it meant that his heart beat for her and only her. No, the princess would think that she’d done something to anger him if he couldn’t get himself under control first. She loved him and wanted him, but there was a chance that she’d cry, she’d beg, she’d scream at him to stop—and given their rocky past and how they came to meet in the first place, she might never trust him again if he tried that.

                _Do I need to rein you in, Trunks?_ Kio repeated calmly. _Do you think we should go somewhere and calm down for a couple hours?_

                “No… I don’t think so. But this was your idea,” he mumbled to his beast. “I’m open to suggestions.”

                _Why don’t you just go down there and **ask** her? _His beast pressed patiently, keeping in mind that at least Trunks had accepted the inevitable and was trying to make strides towards mating the love of his life. _Isn’t that what our mother said Solarians do? The male bares his heart, asks the female to mate and then they go and do some bizarre ceremony and put a ring on the male’s cock?_

“On the finger actually… but other than that I don’t know,” he admitted, unable to unlock his eyes from the woman that would be his if she was agreeable to it.

                She must have felt his eyes on her, because she was suddenly looking around and then up, waving once in his direction, and half-heartedly at that. Just that quick lifting of her arm before she dropped it and gazed up at him. She wasn’t smiling, though—normally she smiled at him, why wasn’t she smiling? Had he done something wrong by coming back early and she was angry with him? Or was she still upset after making her recording?—she was frowning, her eyes seemingly sad even from a distance, and Trunks flew towards her and hovered a few feet away, taking in her somber expression.

                “I wanted to say I’m sorry,” she said softly, her blue eyes brimming with tears. “I… I know you’ve been having nightmares, Trunks. About your father. Not often, but you had one the night before last, before you left. And you talked in your sleep. It broke my heart, Trunks… you sounded so young. Like you were just a kid, and you were begging him not to kill me. To forgive you and leave me be. I think it’s because you’ve felt pressured by me… and I don’t want that. I wanted to say that I’m sorry. So… I think I’m going to go stay with the clan for a while… She offered to let me come and stay with her if I wanted to. I understand wanting to please your parents, and I understand being afraid of things you can’t control... and I don’t want there to be anymore tension between us. Not because I love you.”

                She’d said it. Oh dear gods, she’d actually said it!

It was so hard to resist the urge to pull her into his arms right then, but not wanting to blindside her, Trunks stayed put for the time being, his heart pounding at the thought of kissing her and seeing her reaction when he told her he loved her. Would it make her heart skip just as his had upon hearing it? “Usa… I dream about my father, yes,” he answered carefully, floating closer until she was within touching distance, his hand lifting with a will of its own to brush her hair out of her face and wipe a tear from her cheek. So much for staying put, he couldn’t bear to see her cry. “But my father isn’t important. Not anymore. And you’ve never pressured me. I don’t want you to ever feel that way… and I _don’t_ want you to leave. Please… please don’t cry, sweetheart. I… I…” Trunks found himself swallowing hard, trying to say the words she needed to hear, but the scent of her heat was so overpowering that he could only think of taking her right then and there. Gods, it was requiring every ounce of willpower not to just strip her down and mate her!

                “Trunks, I—“

                A rough kiss cut her off, his large, calloused hand cupping her face as his free arm wound around her waist, and despite how stunned she was, Usagi let out a sob as her eyes slipped shut, then a whimper when his mouth gentled and moved tenderly against hers. And then the reality of what was happening hit her and she drew away, staring up at him in a mixture of heartbreak, love and confusion.

                He’d said it himself; kissing her completely undid him. It made it difficult to think, nearly impossible to reason, so if he was kissing her, did that mean…? “Trunks… what… what are you—“

                “Giving in,” he breathed before pressing his mouth to hers again. One taste wasn’t nearly enough now that he was finally surrendering to his love for her, and while he was fighting his instincts in order to go slow and be gentle, he knew that she still didn’t quite get it. He needed to be able to pull back, to explain that she had it all wrong, that he hadn’t tracked her down just to break her heart and tell her that there would never be anything between them but friendship.

                “Giving up,” he continued, only to kiss her again, nipping at her lower lip and pressing to her tightly, letting her feel his desire weighing heavily against her stomach. “Surrendering,” he groaned against her lips, recalling his thoughts about her from before and what his beast had been demanding of him. “Trusting,” he sighed as she began to tremble and his kisses grew heated and more demanding. “I want you… I _need_ you… please, Usagi…”    

                Usagi could only respond with a soft moan as the hand cupping her cheek slid back to bunch in her messy braid and the arm around her waist tightened, drawing her off of the tree branch, her legs wrapping around him to keep her from dangling in the air.

                This kiss was everything she’d dreamed of and everything she’d hoped for, and as his tongue touched hers and he explored her mouth hungrily, she could only melt into him and return it wholeheartedly, gasping with pleasure as he ground his arousal against the juncture of her thighs. _Please don’t stop,_ she thought as she matched his hunger with her own, rocking into him and moaning when he shoved her skirt to her waist. _My heart will break if you stop, Trunks… please be sure that this is what you want…_

                She was surprised to feel her back meet the ground suddenly but only moaned when Trunks came down on top of her, his lips demanding and ravenous as he continued to kiss her and began tugging at the ties holding her top in place at her neck and her lower back. The soft fur was gone in a moment and tossed aside, and when Usa felt a calloused palm grazing a puckered nipple, she let out a gasp of pleasure and arched into the touch, clutching tightly at his back.

                “Mate with me,” he groaned once he finally found his voice again, so overcome with desire that words were nearly beyond him. “Be mine… I love you, Usa.” He’d finally said it to her in a language she could understand it in, and whatever her reaction, at least the weight on his heart had finally been lifted by the confession. “I love you,” he repeated wholeheartedly, his eyes locked with hers, his hand brushing away more of her tears. “I love you and I’m sorry and I want you to be my wife and mate. And if you want me to beg, I will. I’ll get on my knees and beg, Usagi. Forgive me.”

                Usagi could only nod, speechless thanks to the tearful sob that was closing her throat, only able to return his next kiss with every fiber of her being, her hands moving from his back to explore his heavily muscled torso as he pulled at the makeshift fur skirt that he’d made for her. That was tossed to the side as well as her threadbare panties when they tore from a light tug, and when he immediately pushed his own covering aside and pressed to her moist entrance, she made a noise of approval and moved against him in silent permission. “I love you,” she whispered when he paused and trembled against her. “Don’t stop, Trunks… don’t stop.”

                She’d wanted this for weeks. She’d dreamed about it, fantasized about it, she’d prayed to her grandmother and even to Cha that he would want this with her and that she’d finally know what it was like to be completely, fully one with him, his thoughts and emotions melding with hers even as their bodies joined. “I want this more than anything,” she assured him, pulling him back down to her for another kiss and flexing her legs around his waist so that he was pushing into her.

                Trunks’s kiss was gentle as he encountered some resistance, his purr reaching an all new level as his beast roared in triumph. She wasn’t a virgin anymore, but damn it if she wasn’t still tight. “Relax,” he breathed between kisses, “so tight… relax, Usagi.”

                “Trying,” she replied, wincing as he pushed forward, trying not to tense up. The discomfort fled quickly enough and she was pulling him deeper, moaning happily into a kiss as he stretched and filled her, rubbing that spot that had had her mind going fuzzy during the mini-burning.

                “I love you,” he whispered as he broke the kiss to gaze into her eyes, feeling the pull for the hundredth time since they’d met and relishing the knowledge that he was finally about to become her mate. No partial mark this time, oh hell no. He was sinking his teeth deep and never letting go of her.

                And Vegeta could rot in hell for all he cared.

“Let me mark you, let me make you mine,” he added gently when her eyes welled up with fresh tears and she smiled happily.

                “I’m yours,” she answered softly, her fingertips travelling his bearded jaw before pushing his hair out of his face. “Bite me,” Usa urged him when he bent his mouth to her shoulder and he raked his teeth over it, his hips grinding into hers slowly, his purr shifting to something primal and seductive as his instincts took over. “Make me yours, Trunks… I love you.”

                “Mine,” he breathed before sinking his teeth into the lightly tanned flesh, a low growl escaping him when her head rolled back and she bared her throat to him, her moan of pleasure filling him with a raw need to move, to take her and claim what she was offering him freely, to hear and feel her ecstasy, to show her with his body not only his love, but his life-long devotion and loyalty.

                Sure, the Saiyan language always put the possessive in the male’s tone, but now Trunks finally understood why his mother always joked about her father really being hers and not the other way around.

                Trunks was just as much hers as Usagi was his.

                “I need you, too, _atti_ ,” he purred as he released her shoulder and licked at the silver-edged blood welling up from the punctures. “Bite me back when you’re coming.” Trunks began to move then, his hips rolling into hers slowly, his eyes and ears open for any sign that he was hurting her as he kept licking and sucking at her mark, his hands exploring her idly as he resisted the urge to go hard and fuck her right through the other side of the planet.

                Even moving slowly, though, Trunks was trembling from the force of his own pleasure, her tight, silky walls gripping him and threatening to end him before he’d even started, and he knew that he wouldn’t last beyond her first orgasm—if he even made it that long. “Come for me,” he repeated with a hint of a whimper in his voice. “Usa, please… you feel so good… won’t last…”

                “I’m close, Trunks. Bite me again,” she suggested, kissing him sweetly as she remembered how good it had felt, how it had made her nerves sizzle with pleasure.

                Trunks was more than happy to fulfill her request, giving her one more slow, lazy kiss, relishing the love he saw reflected in her smoky, tear-filled blue eyes, knowing that the same love was echoed in his own. So this was what it was like to be in love and to have it returned; this was what so many warriors secretly yearned for when they spoke of the pull and mating with someone that was perfect for them, someone that complemented them in every way.

                He felt whole as he sank his teeth into her shoulder again and sucked at the mark lovingly, purring and growling joyously as the half-bond strengthened and the intensity of her emotions grew. He had sorely missed that connection with her since they’d let the partial mark heal, and now he could feel her love filling him up from head to toe, warming him from the inside out, washing through him like some sort of healing balm as he continued to move inside of her carefully, her little mewls of pleasure ringing sweetly in his ear. “That’s it,” he sighed between sucks when she let out a soft, feminine moan and he felt her flexing around him tightly. “That’s right… please mark me, Usa…”

                Her inner muscles squeezed him then and he felt her nails digging into his back just as she let loose a long cry of his name, and Trunks’s eyes rolled back when that cry was muffled by his own shoulder and he felt her jaw tighten just before her teeth pierced his skin. He couldn’t think anymore, he could suddenly only feel, his purr blocking out all sound as he groaned and saw stars, a tsunami of ecstasy rolling through him as he spilled his seed in a series of erratic thrusts.

                The first thing that greeted his eyes was the sight of tears on her cheeks, and even though she was smiling, Trunks momentarily panicked and began to babble. “I hurt you. Gods, Usa, I’m so sorry… please forgive me. Please don’t cry, I didn’t mean to, I swear.”

                “Shh… no, Trunks, I’m happy,” she whispered, her voice thick as she felt his love for her pouring through the bond alongside his worry that he’d harmed her during their very first act as mates. “It was wonderful and beautiful, that’s why I’m crying. Not because you hurt me.” The foreign sensation of confusion and amusement that didn’t belong to her made her giggle, and she leaned up to kiss him, pulling him back down with her and savoring the fact that she was finally kissing him, just as she’d yearned to do for what felt like forever. _I don’t think I’ll ever be able to explain to him just how happy I am in this moment,_ she thought wistfully.

                _You don’t have to,_ came a reply in her head, _I can feel it,_ r’sha m’yo _. You can feel mine, too; just open your mind the rest of the way. Like opening a door… that’s it._

 _Mmm… I like this… can we do that again, but like this?_ She wondered curiously as they continued to kiss, both of them sighing and moaning as their mutual arousal perfumed the air around them. _Or is there a limit to how we can use the bond?_

 _Heh, no, sweetheart,_ Trunks answered tenderly. _Come on, let’s go home. Let’s make love properly in bed, near the fire._

 _Right here’s just fine,_ she answered with a giggle in his mind and out loud.

                _Yeah, but we’ve got an audience,_ Trunks chuckled, breaking the kiss with a euphoric little smile before nodding without even looking towards the treeline.

                “Oh,” Usagi gasped, followed by a laugh when She snorted loudly from the woods, her eyes flashing in the fading sunlight before she tipped her head towards them once in acknowledgement and backed away silently into the trees, her body not even rustling so much as one leaf. “Well, at least she’ll know not to come back to get me at dusk,” she giggled.

                The blush staining her cheeks was adorable, and Trunks grinned before kissing her briefly and grabbing her clothes, nipping the tip of her nose as he scooped her up in his arms and aimed for their home.

                He stopped at the lake first, though, licking his lips in anticipation and watching her do the same as he pulled at the ties of his loincloth, and once it was off, he wasn’t disappointed by her curious expression and the banked lust in her eyes.

                Usagi had seen him naked before, but this was the first time she’d looked in the daylight. And even though she’d been up close and personal with it during the burning, she couldn’t help stroking her fingers along his rigid cock, making a slight face at the sticky, drying fluid that coated it. “Sorry,” she said with a touch of shyness when he licked his lips in anticipation and choked out a sound that was half-groan, half-laugh.

                “Just the first time, sweetheart. That’s why I thought we should stop here first. We can wash up, then we’ll go home.”

                “Like a honeymoon?” She asked hopefully, only to blush hotly at her own presumptions. “I mean… we _are_ married, aren’t we?”

                “Yes, we are. And while Saiyans don’t do honeymoons, I don’t see why _we_ can’t take one. After all, we have plenty of supplies and I can’t think of a better way to spend the next month.” Purring at the idea of making love to her as often as possible for a straight month, Trunks hauled her up against him and kissed her deeply, walking them in to their ankles so he could heat it with his ki, releasing her only when the urge to take her right there was almost too strong to resist. “Come on, let’s hurry up,” he suggested as he tugged her in further even though the water was tepid at best, his own cheeks coloring for once when he looked down to find half of his cock bobbing up above the waterline.

                “I couldn’t agree more,” Usagi whispered, suddenly shy as she felt his eyes tracing every exposed inch of her body, the warmth in her lower belly strengthening, demanding more of what they’d just shared out in the field. “Gods… Trunks, I know so little about men and women,” she sighed as she pulled out the soap and handed him a bottle. “Is it normal to want to make love again so soon outside of the burning? Am I going to want this often? N—not that I mind or anything,” she stammered out quickly, “I just want to make sure I’m not weird.”

                “No, there’s nothing weird about it,” Trunks assured her, using his tail to draw her close so he could let his soapy hands glide over her soft skin and he could explore her in the bath like he’d wanted to for so long. He could take his time, he could savor the experience, and now that they were mated he’d make sure to take the opportunity to touch her like this as often as she’d let him. “In fact, I want you again right now, Usa.”

                Tuning into the strength of his desire thrumming through the bond, Usagi began to soap him up as well, looking up at him through her lashes as she let her soapy hands glide repeatedly over his cock, a shy smile touching her lips when he groaned softly and flexed his fingers against her sides impatiently. “I’m clean, I’m clean!” He finally growled, nipping at her ear before trailing his lips and teeth down her throat, enjoying the way she was shivering against him in response.

                Usagi couldn’t help but giggle at his surly tone and the way it contradicted how he was gently lifting her and moving deeper into the lake, his mouth travelling lower to capture a nipple between his lips. The slow sucking shot spears of pleasure right to her core and she moaned softly, tangling her fingers in his hair and rocking against him, gasping when he immediately gave her what she wanted and pushed into her. “That feels so good, Trunks,” she breathed as she rocked against him and surrendered to the wonderful warmth spreading through her despite the chill in the water. “I love you,” she sighed as his mouth travelled up her throat and he emitted a groan so full of need and pleasure that it shook her to the core. “I love you so much, Trunks…”

                “Gods, I’ll never get tired of hearing you say that,” he breathed as he kept moving, taking care to keep his motions slow and gentle, terrified of harming her with his Saiyan strength. “I love you, Usa… wish I’d realized it sooner…”

                Feeling his regret and hearing his jumbled, disjointed thoughts as he fought the urge to come before she’d climaxed, Usagi kissed his mark, her eyes filling with fresh tears of happiness. “We have each other now… that’s what matters, Trunks…”

                She was kissing his mark again, slowly and sweetly running her tongue over the indentions her teeth had left, and Trunks whimpered as it overwhelmed all of his senses and shoved him over the edge. “Gods… damn it, Usagi… wanted… I wanted…”

                “I love you,” she whispered once more before she kissed him tenderly, running her fingers through his hair and down his slick back as he fought for air and filled her with hot seed. “I love you, Trunks. I love you.”

                Hearing those words over and over was overwhelming him with emotion, and Trunks felt tears on his cheeks as he kissed her passionately and carried her from the water and used his ki to dry them. “Let’s go home,” he finally whispered, shifting his hold on her so that he was cradling her against him. “Let me make love to you in our bed. Let me do this right.”

                Trunks continued to warm her in the chilly air with his ki as he flew them the short distance, and he pulled the hatch closed behind them before taking her to their bed and placing her on top of the furs with a sense of reverence, fully aware of the gravity of what they were doing. Their actions out in the field and even in the lake had been instinctual and spur of the moment, but now that he could think, he acknowledged the fact that he’d likely gotten her pregnant… and if he hadn’t, she’d definitely wind up that way if they kept having unprotected sex. “Usa… I…”

                She could hear his thoughts and just shook her head as she drew him down to her and kissed him gently. “It’s alright, Trunks. I want all of you,” she whispered, “and I think it’d make me crazy to not have all of you now that we’re mated. So please… I’m alright with this. Make love to me again.”

                “I love you, sweetheart,” he groaned as he pulled back the covers and they shifted around so that they were finally lying beneath them, their mouths joining softly over and over, their tongues tangling as they simply touched, explored and savored one another.

                It was only when he was pressing into her again that common sense struggled its way to the surface instead of continuing to drown in lust, and Trunks paused, panting slightly from the exertion of willpower. “What if I get you pregnant? What will we do?”

                “Trunks, it takes nine months to make a baby,” Usagi reminded him. “Surely rescue will come before then.” The look on his face told her she was wrong. “It will, won’t it?”

                “I don’t know, sweetheart,” he admitted, his tone soft as if it would somehow soften the blow. “It’s been a little over two months. I think they think we’re dead. When we _do_ finally get rescued, it’ll be by a hunting or training party, and they’ll see us alive and flip the fuck out, most likely. And they don’t come in the winter; it’s too hard to hunt the _wer’kha_ when there’s snow and they blend in.”

                If he’d told her that yesterday, Usagi would have likely cried her eyes out, but now… now he loved her and she knew it. Now, they were married. She had him, and he had her. That made the news a lot easier to bear, and she found herself nodding slowly as she came to a crucial, life-changing decision.

                Only she didn’t know just how life-changing it would be. Not yet.

                “If it happens, it happens. We’ll just have to trust in luck. Or the gods. Because I know I don’t have the willpower, Trunks. I simply don’t… and you don’t, either.”

                That pure, raw honesty of hers was rolling through the bond, and Trunks had to admit that she was right—he didn’t have the willpower. He’d hold out for a week, maybe two at the very most, but no matter how they played it, it would happen sooner or later. Sooner would be better, he decided. A birth in the late summer if his seed caught, giving them several months to make sure they had enough supplies to see them all through the winter in case of a storm. Hopefully rescue would come sooner than that, though. He could only hope.

                “Alright, then,” he whispered, nodding slightly in agreement as he pushed into her, purring at the ripple of pleasure he was instantly rewarded with when she squeezed him. “If it happens, it happens.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FIIIIINAAAALLLYYYYYYY!


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo! I'm BACK! Sorry this took so long yall, but I've had really bad writer's block on everything I'm working on. So anyways, if you want more, leave me a comment! I need some encouragement!

                The sound of his mate practically screaming brought Vegeta running, but when he crashed through the door to their bedroom and he caught a glimpse of the ecstatic face she was making just before it shifted to shock, he could only stare. “Wait… you were screaming because you were… oh dear gods.” It was the king’s turn to beam brightly, and he rushed to his queen’s side to look at the mirror, immediately roaring out in triumph.

                “YES YES YES YES YES THAT’S MY BOY! FINALLY!”

                Serenity was just too happy to care about the door and quickly recovered from her surprise, grinning once more as she looked away from the image of their heirs sleeping soundly—both of their shoulders repeatedly marked—and to Vegeta, who simply looked euphoric.

                He even flopped back on the bed like a little kid, sending the queen a foot into the air, both of them laughing when she squealed upon landing and dove on top of him to kiss him. “About damn time,” she sighed happily before sagging on top of him, her head resting on the hard plate of his chest armor. “I’ll bet you ten credits she’s already pregnant, too.”

                “Phhht… I’m not taking that bet, woman. The odds are stacked against me,” Vegeta chuckled. “She was in heat when Trunks returned, right?” A nod confirmed this and he couldn’t help it when his dopey grin widened. “Well, looks like I’m going to be a Paw Paw again. And might I add that you are the finest looking grandmother I’ve ever seen, my dear?”

                “You may,” Serenity said as she slid up to kiss him again, feeling his smile through the bond even as the one on his face faded while he returned the kiss, took charge of it, and proceeded to devour her slowly. She could feel his need for her through the bond—she could always feel it, it never left him and hummed between them every day, all day, even when he was sleeping—but even when he hardened against her stomach, she wasn’t afraid of it as she’d been a few weeks ago.

                Something had clicked for her shortly after Usagi’s mini-burning. Serenity was still afraid of sex, but her trust in her mate was unwavering. She knew he wouldn’t push her farther than she was willing to go, and no matter how badly he ached to have her, Vegeta had always stopped the moment he’d felt her fear through the bond, ending their make-out sessions with a gentle kiss and a shaky—but understanding— smile.

                Even when she hadn’t wanted him to stop just yet. “Vegeta…?”

                “No, Ren,” he murmured before kissing her again, cutting off a protest. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried to suggest that he simply take her and hope for the best, but he wasn’t hearing any of it. “I have some ideas, but not that. I’d rather suffer from blue balls for eternity than risk breaking you… hell, I’d never forgive myself for that and you know it.”

                “I know, Geta. Which is why I trust you to make love to me,” she countered patiently, her fingers tracing his jaw before moving to the straps securing his armor. She’d helped him remove it countless times since they’d mated, so the clasps were unfastened before she felt his hand closing around her wrists to stop her, and when they did she just lifted an eyebrow and stared at him. “Geta, I’m offering you my body and you’re refusing me.”

                “Because I’d rather not lose your heart, _r’sha_.”

                It was sappy, but it was spoken with such sincerity that Serenity could only sag in defeat and lie down on top of him once more, tears welling up as she wondered if they’d ever be able to have sex like normal people. And of course, there was also—“Vegeta, I want a baby,” she confessed sadly. “I think I’d be willing to endure anything to make you happy, but even more so if it meant I could hold a baby in my arms again. And I don’t want to do that artificial stuff, either. I just want to make a child the way the gods intended us to.”

                Feeling her determination to make a baby and her sadness regarding their last couple of months as mates, Vegeta found himself relenting out of a desire to please her, even if he was hesitant to risk hurting her. “Tonight,” he whispered nervously as he released her hands, purring softly when she immediately began to idly trace his scars. “We’ll try tonight, and if it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t. If it does, then great.”

                “Really?” Serenity asked in complete surprise. She’d prepared many arguments, she’d readied herself to debate the whole thing with him until she was blue in the face… but none of it was necessary. Had he really just agreed with her!? “You’ll really give me a baby, Geta!?”

                “Mmhmm… if you really think you’ll be alright for this, Ren.”

                “I am, Geta. I really am. But why wait for tonight when it’s only going to make us both nervous?” Serenity asked, already a little nervous as she reached behind her own back and unzipped her dress.

                Seeing her bare never failed to distract him, and it was a battle of willpower not to grow hard, especially with her straddling him and her hesitant, nervous arousal perfuming the air. She wanted him, simply and truly, and Vegeta wanted her too, but he wanted to wait for that night so he could have a couple hours to himself. Because if it hadn’t been for the fact that he shamelessly took himself in his tail several times a day, his willpower would have assuredly snapped by then. “Ren… tonight,” Vegeta rasped out, only to jerk in surprise and tremble when she laid her fingers over his clothed, barely flaccid cock and stroked him hesitantly at first, then more boldly when he gripped the bedspread and rocked into her touch. Gods damn it, if she didn’t give him some alone time, he might not be able to restrain himself if she panicked! “R—Ren… shit, Ren…”

                Serenity had never touched him there before, had always shied away from him whenever he so much as pressed against her when he was aroused, and Vegeta had dreamed of the day when she would finally no longer be afraid of such intimacy. Apparently today was that day, and the king of the Saiyans could only purr and growl with pleasure as she traced his growing length, then trailed her nails to his fly to free him.

                The sight of him nude hadn’t bothered her in a long while, but the queen shivered in a mixture of fear and anticipation, though the latter of the two outweighed the former by far, something she was immensely grateful for as she continued to remind herself that this would feel good. “Please, Geta,” she whispered as she finally dared to look at his face, finding him flushed and his eyes glazed with desire.

                “Ren… Ren, you need to… I’m going to come, _atti_ ,” he choked out. “I… I haven’t… taken care of things today.”

                “Good,” she whispered as she tugged his pants down to his knees and slid up so that she was pressing against him intimately, reaching down to check herself. She was surprisingly wet even though she was trembling with nerves, and before she could chicken out or overthink things, Serenity focused on the one thing she wanted most—a baby—as she positioned herself over him and sank down onto the head of his cock.

                Serenity stopped there, though, shaking as she fought the urge to jerk back up and away, breathing hard as she tried to focus on Vegeta’s strained face to drive home the fact that the man inside of her was the man she loved with every beat of her heart. “It’s not him,” she whimpered under her breath. “It’s Vegeta… it’s _Vegeta_ … he _loves_ me… he’ll _never_ hurt me…”

                “Ren… Ren, stop,” the king whispered as he leaned up on his elbows. “We’ll try again tonight. You’re not ready for this, _atti_.”

                If he had urged her to continue, Serenity would have probably stopped, but the concern she could feel welling up from him through the bond and the worry in his eyes calmed her. No, this was _not_ Alaric. This was _not_ the man that had abused her for years, who had tried to kill her and her daughter just because the baby wasn’t a son. This was Vegeta, _her_ Vegeta, the man that had made her feel safe again, who had sheltered her when she’d been terrified , who had held her at night through all of the nightmares, who had held her hand and coached her through the pain of childbirth. This was the man that had performed all of the duties of a husband without _ever_ asking her to perform the duties of a wife.

                She sank down a little more.

                “Ren… it’s alright… you can stop,” Vegeta assured her, even though she was gazing into his eyes with a determination he knew all too well. That stubborn glint was there, the one that her daughter had inherited from her mother, and his breath caught in his throat as he felt more of that wet, tight—gods, she was so fucking _tight_!—warmth engulfing him. “Fuck _… Ren…”_

                She was rocking her hips a little now, taking more of him bit by bit, and Vegeta finally reached a point where he lost the will to stop her and sagged onto the bed. “Feels so good, _atti_ … you’re doing so well… yes, that’s it… take all of me…”

                Before either of them knew it, she’d done just that, and Serenity stopped to adjust to how much his girth had stretched her and how full she felt. A nervous giggle erupted from her at the thought of how his enormous size didn’t hurt, and she covered her mouth to stifle another one, shaking her head when he lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “Sorry, you know how I get ridiculous thoughts,” she snickered. “It’s only that you’re huge and it doesn’t hurt! But him… he… well, he was barely average!”

                _Thank the gods for that,_ Vegeta thought grimly, keeping the thought completely private so that she couldn’t hear it. _If he’d been my size, he could have ruptured something inside of her. He could have killed her._ “You’re sure I’m not hurting you at all?” He asked, forcing himself to ignore the dull ache in his cock and the knowledge that he was wrapped in a hot, wet sheath that could relieve that ache for him if she only moved over him for a few minutes.

                “No… it’s just… I feel so… _full_ ,” she said as she licked her lips anxiously, fighting down another wave of nervousness that bordered on fear. “But there’s no pain. I want to try and move, too, but…”

                “I’ll hold still,” he choked out, letting his beast take over since it was hammering away at him not to move a fucking muscle or it would drag Vegeta so far down into his own mind that he might never find his way out again. The king didn’t even want to fight his beast on this issue since he was just as concerned about Serenity’s well-being as it was, but he was worried that he might instinctively try to thrust into her, so he allowed his Saiyan nature to lock his lower body in place, leaving him in control of only his upper body. “G—go ahead…”

                There was a long pause while Serenity was summoning all of her courage, but she finally rolled her hips against him once, definitely noting the way he trembled and his eyes rolled back, his hands clenching the bedspread in an effort to stop himself from touching her. “Does it feel good? Am… am I doing it right?” She asked as she moved a second time.

                A groan and a nod was all he could manage for a bit, and Vegeta knew he was going to come quickly when she began to slowly lift herself and fall back onto him, her wetness coating him and making him slick for her. “Yes… yes, _r’sha_ … you’re doing it so well… feels so bloody fucking _good_ …”

                The first twinge of pleasure she’d felt in her entire life as a result of having a man inside of her caught her so off guard that Serenity actually stiffened and stopped moving, gazing down at Vegeta in shock.

                “What?” He asked, his voice catching and coming out sounding like a desperate whimper. “Ren, talk to me… am I hurting you?”

                “N—No… it… it felt good,” she whispered, letting him feel her astonishment and blushing when he emitted a husky chuckle and began purring happily. “I… I just honestly hadn’t expected it.”

                “That’s what’s supposed to happen,” Vegeta purred, gripping the covers tightly. “So fucking hard not to touch you right now,” he added roughly, only to grin and laugh as a funny thought struck him. “Heh, you’ve made me your bitch, Ren. How does it feel to top a king and make him submit to you?”

                Serenity couldn’t help but giggle at that, and the remaining bit of tension she felt melted away at the sound of their mutual laughter, her hips moving once more and her blue eyes shining with pleasure as his glittered up at her with love and lust.

                It was really starting to feel good as she continued to move over him slowly, listening to his soft groans and encouragements, never taking her eyes from his even when he suddenly shuddered beneath her and sucked in a shaky breath, coating her channel with hot seed. “Good?” She whispered once she’d rode him through his climax, stilling her body and smiling down at him, proud that she’d finally made love to him in some fashion, even if it wasn’t exactly how they’d thought it would be.

                “No, I wanted you to come, too,” Vegeta grumbled. “Don’t stop, I’m still hard.”

                Serenity hesitated at first, convinced that it would take a long time before she found ecstasy with him, but she could feel his need to please her through the bond, so she relented and began to move again. But she stopped once more, and when he shook his head and begged her with his eyes to use him for her pleasure, she shushed him by leaning down and hesitantly kissing him. When she didn’t feel any fear or have a flashback that would shut her down for an entire day, Serenity sighed happily and kissed him again, renewing the slow, lazy rolling of her hips, her movements gaining in confidence and growing smoother as he groaned into her mouth when she parted his lips with her tongue.

                “Touch me,” she whispered after a few minutes. “Make love to me, Geta… please…”

                His hands only released the sheets when she broke the kiss to look down at him with happy tears in her eyes, an encouraging smile on her face. “It’s ok, Geta. Really, it is. I’m not afraid anymore.”

                Sure enough, he couldn’t feel even a little bit of fear through the bond, and Vegeta licked his lips in anticipation before smoothly flipping them and thrusting into her slow and deep, wringing a soft moan from her mouth.

                That only lasted for a moment, though; having him on top brought back too many bad memories, and Serenity was stopping him and shaking her head, trembling as the feeling of being pinned down suffocated her. “G—Geta, pl—please…!”

                “I’ve got you, _r’sha m’yo_ ,” he whispered as he rolled them onto their sides, kissing her tenderly in an effort to soothe her. “I’m with you,” he continued aloud and through the bond, his love for her rolling through the bond as he simply held her close and didn’t move his hips so much as a fraction. “I’ve got you. Ren… Ren, are you alright? Talk to me.”

                She could only nod, clinging to him tightly as her terror rolled through the bond, but it was fading fast as he pushed love and understanding through it from his end, his purr rolling softly in comfort as his lips pressed to her forehead. “We should stop,” he whispered before tipping her chin up with his fingertips. “I shouldn’t have done that—gotten on top—when you told me to make love to you. I only thought—“

                “No, Geta… I… I wanted you to,” she replied just as softly, her voice insistent as she showed him a fantasy she’d kept secret from him because she hadn’t wanted to get either of their hopes up. In it, he was on top of her, loving her slow and deep, and Serenity was enjoying every moment of letting him dominate her and feeling one hundred percent safe and cherished while he pressed her into the rumpled sheets. “I _wanted_ that… you did exactly what I’d asked you to do. I just wasn’t ready for it. Not yet. But soon.”

                “Ren, I don’t give a flying fuck about being on top. Yeah, I prefer being dominant,” Vegeta huffed when she raised an eyebrow and looked about ready to call bullshit on him. “But your needs are more important. I’ll be the bitch for the rest of my life if that’s what I need to do. Having you just a few minutes ago, letting you take me? _That_ was better than anything I’ve ever had… even better than Kalera,” he added, truth in his voice even though there was a hint of sadness to it at the thought of his first mate and best friend of many, many years. “Even though I only lasted a couple minutes. The _only_ thing that could have possibly made it any better was to have made you enjoy it, too, _atti._ ”

                “I did enjoy it, Geta,” she assured him gently. “It felt nice, which is certainly a far cry from—“

                “No,” he breathed as he dared to cup her breasts, brushing his lips over her mark as he tugged one of her legs around his waist. “You didn’t come, Ren,” he continued, his voice taking on a seductive note as he dipped his face and took a nipple in his mouth, emitting a groan that mingled with her soft whimper as he suckled her slowly and she arched into it. “I want to give you that,” he rasped once he released the hard, pink nub. “Let me make you come, Ren. Let me _really_ make you mine.”

                Blushing hotly at the things his low, sultry voice was doing to her, Serenity shivered as he began to move again, withdrawing from her tight, wet sex and pushing inside of her again slowly, stopping briefly, waiting for her nod before kissing her and setting an agonizingly slow pace.

                His kiss was rough and full of need and pent-up desire for her, but Serenity was used to that from their make out sessions and returned it with full force, moaning and clutching at him as he continued to love her slowly, his thrusts as careful as they were deep. “Geta… feels so… good,” she breathed between kisses.

                “Yes,” he purred as he moved his lips to her throat, “I want you to come for me, my queen. My mate…” Dropping his voice to the barest hint of a whisper, it was Vegeta’s turn to tremble as the words sat on the tip of his tongue… and then tumbled from it. “…I love you.”

                “Geta?” Her eyes hazy with pleasure and filling with emotional tears, Serenity could only look at him in disbelief. Had he really just said…?

                “ _You heard me_ , Ren,” the king rasped in her ear, panting at the pleasure that coursed through him when she flexed around him briefly. “I love you. Now come for me… be mine. Be my mate, _r’sha_.”

                Vegeta wasn’t disappointed when she captured his lips with hers and kissed him heatedly, now moving against him, her hips nudging him to go faster. He gradually obliged, making sure that she was fine with the new pace before increasing it some more, and when her moans grew louder and more frequent they were still making love at what he considered to be a leisurely pace. “You feel so good, Ren… I want you to feel it too… let me feel what I do to you… let me feel you coming for me, baby… I’ve waited for this for twenty years…”

                As he continued to murmur into her ear, Serenity felt the warmth mounting inside of her, growing hotter and brighter, spreading into her limbs and chest, and then it suddenly exploded inside of her, filling her with the ecstasy she’d felt when they’d both bitten one another. She was finally coming for him hard and long, and as she peaked she cried out into his mouth as he kissed her deeply, following her over the edge with a groan of complete and total satisfaction.

                As the intense pleasure ebbed into a delicious afterglow, Serenity giggled and smiled brightly into the kiss that he was still ravaging her mouth with and she was returning with every ounce of love she had for him. That giggle became a laugh when he chuckled right along with her, the movement making his beard tickle her. “What’s so funny?” Vegeta purred when she wouldn’t stop giggling.

                “We did it,” she breathed, followed by another sweet, joyful titter. “We did it, Vegeta!”

                “Yeah… we did… though I don’t think I’ve heard someone refer to mating as ‘doing it’ since I was fifteen,” he teased as he dipped his mouth to her mark and nipped at it playfully.

                “Well then… let’s do it again? Like we’re fifteen?” Serenity asked softly, her voice and eyes hopeful as her fingertips traced the deep lines of the battle scars on his chest. “Can we?”

                “Are you… are you sure?” Vegeta asked in utter surprise. “Really?”

                Smiling sexily, it was Serenity’s turn to tease his mark with her tongue and teeth, and she said the one thing she’d wanted to say for a very long time. “I need you, Geta… make me yours again.”

                Vegeta was suddenly terrified that he would accidentally hurt her when his beast rose up at the sound of those words, purring seductively just for her, his arms winding around her and his hands sliding down her spine to her backside, where he cupped her and rocked his hips. “Ren… my Ren…”

                “It’s alright, Geta. I’m not scared. Take what’s yours… make a baby with me.”

                Her words said yes, but her smile and the light in her eyes confirmed that she was alright, and he nodded as he began to move inside of her once more. “Anything you want, _r’sha m’yo_. Anything and everything.”

                And judging by the way she kissed him and how it quickly became ravenous, he was going to have to tell Nappa to clear his schedule for quite some time… because what she wanted was to make up all of the time they’d lost since the first time he’d ever held her in his arms.

########################################

                Usagi couldn’t help the tears that came after she’d woken up, she just simply couldn’t help them at all. She’d roused out of the deepest, most restful sleep she’d had since the mini-burning to find her and Trunks holding each other so tightly that it would have been difficult for a third party to figure out where one began and the other ended.

                “Shh,” Trunks breathed into her hair as he began to purr, still half-asleep and groggy, slow to wake thanks to his deep level of relaxation. “S’ok, _atti_.”

                “No, I’m _happy_ ,” she choked out. “Happier than I’ve ever been. I love you, Trunks.”

                “Mmm… luh you, too,” he mumbled as he nuzzled her mark and used his tail to draw the covers up around them both a little more. The fire had gone out, but he couldn’t be bothered to care about it when the temperature was cold but not frigid and he was warm with his mate under a mountain of fur. “Mine… mmm… all mine…”

                “Yours,” Usagi giggled as she felt him slipping back down into dreamland, using her ki to warm herself as she tried to slip out of the bed, only to get yanked back down and snuggled by her solid mate. “Trunks, I gotta pee, _please_! I’ll wind up peeing on you!”

                “Oh,” he chuckled, cracking open his sleep-glazed blue eyes just barely and smiling happily at her as he let her go. “Go on, I’m not into that weird stuff.”

                “Phhht… pervert,” she laughed as she made tracks for the chamberpot and cranked up her ki a little more as she shivered. It was really, _really_ cold this morning, and after the warm spell she’d enjoyed during the day that Trunks was gone and the couple before that, Usagi was still trembling from it as she returned and immediately started to load the fireplace. “It’s got to be negative thirty outside for it to feel this cold in here!” She said with chattering teeth as she put a battery and a gum wrapper to good use, patiently waiting for it to catch fire over the little pile of tinder she’d placed just beneath the log in front.  

                The moment she had a decent fire going, Usagi dove back under the covers and snuggled into Trunks, giggling and then laughing hysterically when he yelped at the feeling of her ice cold feet on his thighs. “HOLY SHIT GET THOSE OFF OF ME!”

                “Hahahaha that killed your boner pretty quick, didn’t it!?” She howled as she stuck them back on his legs and he immediately began to tickle her in retaliation.

                Once they had both dissolved into laughter and then laid there temporarily exhausted by it, Trunks looked up at her from where his head had wound up pillowed on her breast, and smiled softly—a real, genuine, happy smile that spoke of total contentment and serenity. “You know, Usagi…” His hand skimmed over her flat stomach as he looked into her eyes and simply enjoyed the glow of love in them. Love for him, completely bared and unafraid. It honestly humbled him to think that he’d been so terrified of such a thing, and how he’d repeatedly rejected her, only for Usagi to continue to love him so selflessly. _I don’t deserve her._

“No, I don’t know,” she chuckled when he only continued to think and she sensed his regret through the bond. Gods, if only she knew how to erase that feeling for him; what was done was done, and they were together now and that was all that mattered, right? They had each other, and she wished he could just be as happy as she was with the way things had turned out. “What, Trunks?”

                His hand was still tracing her stomach and he slid down to nuzzle it, his beard scraping pleasantly against her soft skin. “You’re not fertile anymore. The scent’s disappeared… but you know as well as I do that your fertile time lasts three days or more. It’s only been two, Usagi,” he pointed out as he tried for the fourth or fifth time to pinpoint any possible life growing inside of her. He couldn’t feel it, but he knew in his gut that he or she was in there, only a day old and growing, not even male or female yet. Right now it was only a bundle of rapidly splitting cells, but in a few weeks it would have a heartbeat… and in a few months, they would have a baby.

                “I could ask the ginzuishou,” Usagi offered softly, suddenly nervous about the idea of motherhood. She was thrilled to be carrying Trunks’s child, that a new life was the result of the consummation of their love for each other, but the fact remained that they were stranded on a planet with no medical facilities. They didn’t even have a midwife. Yes, She would know what to do, but She had very likely never overseen the birth of a humanoid—Usagi highly doubted that any _wer’kha_ **ever** had.     

                “If it makes you feel any better, Usagi, I have a good feeling about this,” Trunks assured her. “A _very_ good feeling. I think everything’s going to be just fine. Maybe that means we’ll be rescued.”

                “And if we’re not?” Worrying her lower lip, Usagi couldn’t help but think of the worst case scenarios, especially since she’d helped her mother and Ami and Hotaru in the hospitals whenever her healing light was the only thing that could save a mother and child. There was breech birth, and preeclampsia, placenta previa… the list went on and on. Something made so simple by medical advancements could wind up killing her and the baby. The cord could be wrapped around its neck, or her labor could go on and on because she couldn’t dilate on her own and she’d eventually bleed out or the baby would die inside of her. Those things could be easily fixed in a professional medical setting, but out here… out here they were all alone and would rely heavily on luck. And what if it was twins? Oh gods, if she was pregnant with twins, then there were a million and one things to worry about, like—

                “Shhhh… stop thinking like that,” Trunks whispered, wiping at the tears she wasn’t even aware of shedding. “You’re going to be fine, Usagi. And the baby will be fine, too. And if we’re not rescued, then you’ve got nine months starting today to teach me everything you know about delivering babies. I’ll ask She to teach me what she knows, too. We’ll consult the computer, we’ll find out if there are any herbs on the planet that will help with any complications that may arise, and we’ll be as prepared as we possibly can be when the time comes.”

                “Yes, of course. You’re right,” Usagi replied, her voice thick with emotion. “I’m sorry, Trunks, this should be a happy moment for us. I shouldn’t ruin it by worrying about things I can’t change.” Running her fingers over his bearded cheek, her genuinely happy smile returned again, and she did as he asked when he told her through the bond to see what the crystal said.

                It answered immediately, and the answer made them smile even broader. “Yes, I’m pregnant. I’ve been pregnant since we first mated last night.”

                “Heh… did you know that Saiyans very rarely make a baby from the very first time they claim a mate?” Trunks asked. “The times after that are a toss-up, but when sex involves fully mating a woman for the first time, a male shoots blanks. I guess a few of mine were loaded,” he chuckled.

                “We’ll thank your human genes for that, I guess,” she giggled as she snuggled into him for warmth even though the fire was beginning to heat their small home. They sat there quietly for a long time as Usagi simply leaned into him and he idly stroked her stomach with his fingers, contemplating names for their little prince or princess, wondering how hard it would be for him to make a cradle or a crib. “Trunks?”

                “Hm?”

                “This… this is real, right?” Usagi asked softly, her cheeks heating up in embarrassment. “Could you do me a favor and just pinch me? It just feels so surreal and I can’t wrap my head arou—OW! That hurt!”

                “Nope, not a dream,” he snickered. “At least not your dream. Maybe we’re in—OW! Why the ass!?”

                “Heh, nope… you’re not dreaming, either,” she giggled. “And can you blame me?” She asked when he rubbed his stinging butt cheek. “It’s an awfully nice ass, Trunks.”

                “Yeah, and I absolutely love your tits but didn’t pinch one of _those_ ,” he grumped. “Though to be fair… I know something else of mine you love but didn’t pinch,” he added with a mischevious grin, that expression the only warning she received before he dumped her out of his lap onto the furs and immediately pinned her with the length of his body.

                More than eager to let him love her like he had for most of the night, Usagi licked her lips in anticipation as she felt that other part of him that she loved pressing to her inner thigh. “Well, if we’re being fair—like you said—then I have something you love that can squeeze what I love. But it doesn’t pinch.”

                “I’d hope not,” Trunks purred as he pressed the wide head of his cock to her entrance and found that she was already wet for him. “Because if it suddenly started pinching me, I’d wonder if a lake crab had crawled in there during your last bath.”

                “Ew,” Usagi replied, wrinkling her nose in disgust. “According to your stories, your Uncle Raditz is the only one that gets crabs, Trunks. I’m not that kind of girl.”

                “No, you’re not,” he agreed as he kissed her tenderly. “You’re _my_ girl… which reminds me. No, just stay put,” Trunks told her as he reached out to grab the leather bag from beneath his pillow. “The day you found this,” he began softly, “I was panicking because I was afraid you’d found the real gift inside. Not the earrings. You see… I… I sort of made you… well, a mating gift.”

                His embarrassment was tangible, embarrassment with himself for denying his love for her, for letting them both suffer for much longer than necessary, and Usagi soothed him with her light and kissed him. “We’re together now, that’s what matters, Trunks.”

                “I know, I know. Here, Usagi.” Trunks opening the bag then and drew out a leather cord, revealing a necklace almost identical to his own, right down to the bone beads she’d carved for his. “I made it from your first kill, Usa. Your people have matching rings, but… I thought this would be more fitting for us. A bone ring could break easil—“

                Usagi had yanked him down to her and was kissing the life out of him before he could finish that last word, her legs wrapping around his waist tightly as she felt him pressing to her entrance again, her hips rocking in a clear demand for him. _It’s perfect and I love you,_ she whispered through the bond. _I want you right now, my mate. My husband._

Trunks eagerly obliged her, filling her quickly, both of them oblivious to the snowstorm rolling in outside. The cold snap was the herald of the storm and it was already snowing steadily, a thick white blanket coating the earth where the last storm’s remains had finally melted.

                This storm would last for over a week, but neither of them would have been bothered to worry about it even if they’d known it was coming their way. After all, neither of them had any plans to leave their little love nest for at least a week… maybe a bit longer.

                And little did they know, another Saiyan and another Lunarian over two hundred million miles away had very similar plans for their upcoming week.                                                                   


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, yall! I hope yall enjoy this, it's just a quick interlude before we timejump a little to Trunks and Usagi and a little more of Vegeta and Bulma. Enjoy and please R&R, I'm sick, so MOTIVATE me rofl!
> 
> Note: edited towards the end to reflect an idea I had for the Nappami sidefic that yall should watch out for. :D

                The only reason she was even bothering was because he’d closed off the bond from his end… at least that’s what Bulma kept telling herself as she practically stomped down the hallway, her rage fueled by the building headache that always resulted from the mating bond between her and the prince remaining shut for too long.

                “Vegeta!” She barked as she pounded on the door to his bedroom, a room she hadn’t stepped foot in in what seemed like forever. “Vegeta, you open the door right this minute! I can tolerate the snarkiness and your typical attitude, but I won’t tolerate the migraine I get every time you close the bond just because you want some attention!”

                _It’s open. I’m sorry,_ r’sha _._

                His voice was barely even a whisper in her mind, and Bulma froze in place, a shiver going down her spine at the feelings trickling through the barely opened bond even as her headache vanished. Despair. Grief. Anger. Misery. Anguish… and hopelessness. What’s more… Vegeta had just apologized. He’d actually _apologized_. To _her_ … _and_ he’d used the word ‘ _r’sha_ ,’ something she hadn’t heard out of him in seven years.

                Bulma somehow wasn’t surprised to find his door unlocked—she’d been pounding on it for no reason, it seemed—and she couldn’t get it open quickly enough as her worry intensified at the sound of a quiet sob coming from the opposite side of the door.

                What she found in his room got her feet moving as fast as possible, and before she could think better of it, Bulma was embracing him tightly. “Geta,” she breathed, “Geta, what’s wrong? W—Why are you—“ She nearly said ‘crying’ but thought better of it before the word left her mouth. No, she didn’t need to point that out, not to him, not right now. If she did he would shut her out and she’d never find out what had upset him so much that he was actually _crying_. “Sweetie, tell me what’s wrong. Whatever it is, tell me. I’ll fix it if I can, alright?”

                “You can’t fix _this_ ,” he rasped, his voice thick with emotion as he pushed her away gently—something else that floored Bulma, she’d expected him to shove her roughly—and looked up at her, his face soaked in tears. “Bulma… our… our…”

                Vegeta couldn’t finish the sentence and only continued to look at her, his eyes filled with so much despair and hopelessness that Bulma was at a loss. She didn’t know what to do for the first time in her life. Bulma always had the answer to everything no matter what the subject was, always had an opinion… but for this… she had _nothing_. Not even the slightest clue how to proceed in this situation.

                It was only when he shifted his arms and extended them towards her that she noticed for the first time that he’d been clutching something tightly to his chest, and Bulma studied the burnt, torn and severely frayed and weathered cloth that had once been red and blue. A feeling of utter dread washed through the Mercurian princess at that moment, and she felt sick as she reached down to touch it, her hand trembling and her throat closing. The gold thread embroidered into the cloth was dirty in most places and frayed just as badly as the red and blue cloth, but bits of it winked at her here and there, the partially-destroyed shape the embroidery made hinting at what the item once was. “V—Vegeta… is… is this…” She couldn’t say the words. She simply couldn’t. To say them was to make it true, make it real. “Tell me… tell me that this _isn’t_ —“

                “I… I went to Five,” he choked out, his sobbing renewed at the sight and sound of Bulma’s immediate tears. “I… I’m so sorry, Bulma… it… it’s all my fault,” he whispered helplessly. “This is all my fault.”

                Bulma’s legs felt weak and she suddenly hit her knees, crying silently as her hands clutched the once-beautiful, expensive fabric desperately. It was then that she noticed the chunks of burned and blackened armor sitting beside her estranged mate’s feet, the symbol of the royal house of Vegeta-sei just barely legible on the broken piece of breastplate. “Trunks,” she sobbed, “my… my baby… no… **_no_**! No, it’s _not true_! This… this isn’t real! It can’t be real! Please! _Please_ , Vegeta, **_please tell me it’s not real_**!”

                The sheer terror in her voice that threatened to cross over into hysteria spurred him to act, and for the first time in over a year, Vegeta snagged his mate and pulled her into his arms, holding her so tightly that he was sure she couldn’t breathe. She didn’t complain, though. She didn’t even flinch when her ribs protested the desperate hug. Bulma could only cry in big, gulping sobs, heaving for air as she clung to Vegeta franticly. “It’s true,” he finally managed around his own sobs. “Trunks… he’s gone. Our son is dead, Bulma. I… I’m so sorry… _please, Bulma, please_ … I’m _sorry_. Please forgive me… it’s _all my fault_ …”

####################################

                If he’d left the moment he’d known Trunks’s ship had crashed, if he hadn’t given his son the order to shoot down the crown princess of the Lunarians, if _he’d_ been there instead of Trunks… if…

                If, if, if.

                So many ifs, and nothing he could do would change the fact that his stupid prejudice and his endless, idiotic pride had killed his son. His only child and the only person he’d ever cared for— _truly_ cared for—besides his father, his daughter, and his mate. Sure, he’d had a fucked up way of showing he cared, but he _had_ , despite what everyone thought.

                Vegeta had left for Five a week ago without informing anyone, packing enough capsules to get him through for the duration of the trip, along with first aid kits and a medtank in a capsule just in case he found his son and he was injured. He’d even brought enough supplies for that stupid little princess, too, just in case he found both of them alive.

                He wasn’t stupid; he knew that if both of them had lived through the crash there was a good chance that his son and Vegeta’s new stepsister had joined forces in the name of survival, and while he still hated the little Lunarian bitch, he wouldn’t kill family. She was kin now, whether he liked it or not, and while he was stronger than his father, he was pretty sure that he’d still face his father’s wrath if he went and killed Serenity’s daughter. Maybe Trunks’s wrath, too, if they’d become fast friends as people stuck together in desperate situations were wont to do.

                He’d packed a multitude of maps as well, including star charts and a graph that showed what position the planet had been in when Trunks and Usagi had gone down, overlaid with several projections of likely crash sites. Vegeta was smarter than the average grunt, and he’d actually come within a mile of the crash site, only to land in the middle of a blizzard.

                Much to his dismay and annoyance, he’d known that no one would hear him over the roaring of the storm, so he’d hunkered down until the blizzard had dissipated enough for him to see more than a foot in front of him. He’d sat and waited in his pod for three days, and when he’d emerged to clear skies, he’d found that the blizzard had blown the snow in every direction, leaving bald patches of dead grass here and there in the field directly opposite the ocean.

                And in one of those bald patches, he’d spotted a burned out hunk of metal.

#################################

                “I still searched for the princess,” Vegeta whispered brokenly once he’d finally gotten his emotions mostly under control and had told most of the story of how he’d searched the wreckage, still holding his estranged mate to him tightly. “I found her ship partially in the ocean, close to the beach, but no sign of her. I… I don’t think she would have survived long; winter’s settled in and the environment they crashed in is brutal. Maybe if they’d crashed a few degrees further south… I don’t know. Maybe. Too many maybes… to many ifs.”

                “We need to tell Serenity,” Bulma rasped, all cried out for the moment. “Oh gods… Vegeta, what will we tell Bra?”

                “The truth,” he sighed. “We’ll tell her the truth.”

                “We… we need to go back, Vegeta,” Bulma insisted tearfully. She’d thought she’d run out of tears, but apparently she was wrong—fresh ones were coming quickly and running down her cheeks, and a sob left her as she thought of what they might find if they managed to locate Trunks’s body. “We… we have to find him and give him the proper funeral rites, at least.”

                His eyes slipped shut at that; he just couldn’t look her in the face as he told her the hard, cold facts. “Bulma,” he whispered shakily, “that area is rife with _wer’kha_. There… there’s zero chance that there’s anything left of him. There was just too much… too much blood,” he finished with a hard swallow as he nodded towards the cloak. Bulma had thought it stained in dirt—and it was—but the brown substance that marred the once-pristine red and blue wasn’t dirt at all. No, it was the blood of their only son and the heir to the throne.

                The _wer’kha_ clan he’d found signs of in the snow and in the forest was likely one of the biggest he’d ever seen; there were traces of them everywhere in the woods even though it was their hibernation season, and the mating ring he’d found was enormous. “They would have smelled the blood, Bulma. I… I only hope that they found him after he was… _gone_.” He’d said it already, but at the moment Vegeta couldn’t utter the word ‘dead,’ it just brought up too many images of his son’s corpse being devoured by the fierce predators that called that section of Five ‘home.’

                His son, the baby that had cried too often for his liking, who Vegeta himself had only rarely held and only when Bulma had insisted. The baby that had grown into an inquisitive, eager-to-please child. A hardworking child that idolized his father and grandfather and would do anything and everything for them to gain their approval. “I did everything wrong,” Vegeta breathed, his voice heavy with regret. “I was always so hard on him. _Too_ hard on him. I… I…” A teenager, still eager to please, desperate to earn his father’s respect since it was obvious he’d never have his love. A young man and a future king that Vegeta was secretly _fiercely_ proud of, a warrior that rivaled himself and far outstripped him in many areas. _Gods, I’d change places with him if only so I could apologize for everything._ “Bulma… I’m a bad father,” he realized with a choked sob.

                Bulma had been on the verge of agreeing with him, telling him that yes, he’d _always_ been too hard on Trunks and he _was_ a bad father to him, but the grief in his voice and rolling through the bond and the fresh tears welling up in Vegeta’s eyes silenced her and she only hugged him tighter, wishing she could purr comfort for him as he had been purring for her. “No… it’s alright, Vegeta,” she whispered as soothingly as she could.

                “No!” He shouted, his arms tightening around her when she tried to withdraw. “No, it’s **_not_** alright! It’s _anything_ but alright and it’ll _never_ be alright again! _I did this_! _I killed our son_ , Bulma!”

                She didn’t know what to say to that. Bulma could only cry with him and hold him tightly, swallowing her complaints when she felt her ribs protesting how hard he was hugging her. On one hand, he was right—he was responsible in many ways for Trunks’s death… but on the other hand, Vegeta had never, ever wished Trunks’s death and if he’d known how things would have turned out he would have done them differently. Hell, he would have even sacrificed his own life for his son’s and Bulma knew that for a fact. Years and years of being mated to the man had taught her how to read him through the bond, even when it was partially or mostly closed, and right now with it flung wide open, she was sharing in his thoughts as if they were her own.

                She wanted to blame someone—anyone—for this tragedy, to find some closure by taking out her anger on that person, but despite their long separation, she still loved Vegeta. She always would, even though he didn’t need to know that and she hadn’t said it in years. “Vegeta,” she finally whispered, once she had sorted out her feelings. “I…” Bulma couldn’t say ‘it’s not your fault’ or ‘you couldn’t have known,’ because when she boiled it all down to the simple facts, it was his fault and he _should_ have known. But because she loved him, and because her anger wouldn’t return her son to her, she could give him this much. “I forgive you, Vegeta,” she managed as she cupped his face and looked him in the eyes. “I forgive you. B—because… because you would take his place. You would give me back my baby if you could. I know that.”

                Yes. Yes, he would, and because Bulma understood, it managed to ease the severity of his grief, even if only a little. If only he knew that his presence and how hard he was crying for his son was also easing hers.

##############################

                They both cried themselves to exhaustion, and for the first time in seven years, they shared the same bed, clinging to each other so tightly that it would have taken a crowbar to separate them. That was how Bra found them in the morning, and sensing that something was very, very wrong with her parents, she wisely left the room and quietly closed the door behind her, turning around to seek out her grandfather and the new grandmother that she was quickly growing very fond of.

                “ _Ja’ja’ta_ ,” she said softly as she swung open the door to the royal bed chambers without announcing herself beforehand, only briefly noting that Nappa was nowhere to be seen, nor Ami, who was supposed to be on duty that week. “ _Ja’ja’ma_?”

                Both of them woke immediately, and while the queen blushed and covered up, twelve year old Bra wasn’t bothered. She was Saiyan after all, and she found her new grandmother’s reaction to all of the constant nudity laughable. It was hot on Vegeta-sei. Duh. Everyone was going to run around naked given half the chance, and Bra did as well if her mother didn’t catch her and force her into some clothes while Vegeta stood by and laughed at his mate’s stupid sensibilities about modesty.

                “ _Atti_ , what’s wrong?” The king rumbled sleepily, sitting up and relinquishing the cover to his mate, slipping out of the bed to tug on some pants. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

                “ _Ma nee ja’ta m’kor… ih p’eu ja’tau_ ,” she said softly, only to realize that it would take the queen a moment to translate that through the bond. “Mom and Daddy are sleeping together in Daddy’s room,” she repeated in Solarian for Serenity’s benefit. “They… they haven’t shared a bed in a very long time. Not since I was little.”

                “Oh,” the queen stated, only to frown and shrug. “So… they made up? Why is that bad, sweetheart? I don’t understand.”

                “They had clothes on. And… and I smelled… I don’t know. Something strange. Tears,” Bra murmured. “Daddy had been crying, too. And… I know it sounds weird, but… I smelled Trunks. But it was faint. So was the blood I smelled.”

                Going sheet white, the king and queen exchanged a look before the former of the two swallowed hard. “Vegeta went missing for three days,” his father whispered. “I thought he was just going out on one of those long training trips, but…”

                “He went to Five,” Serenity finished for him.

                Bra was young but far from stupid, and it only took her a moment to understand what had happened, her knees trembling before she fell to them and she looked up at the grandfather with tear-filled blue eyes. “T—Trunks is dead?” She asked, praying to Dra that one of the grown-ups she trusted had an answer for all of this that didn’t involve her brother being gone forever. “B—But _Ja’ta_ … he told me… he _swore_ that Trunks was alive! **_He promised me_**!” She yelled. “How could he promise that and then—“

                “Shit,” the queen swore as she left the bed with the sheet wrapped around her and moved quickly around a frozen King Vegeta, who could only stand there and stare at his sobbing granddaughter with a clueless look on his face. He didn’t know what to do, that much was clear, but thankfully for all three of them, Serenity already knew how she was going to handle this. “Bra… Bra, look at me,” she stated firmly as she embraced the pre-teen and gripped her chin. “Look at me. Am I crying?”

                “N—No,” Bra whimpered as Serenity wiped at her face gently with the edge of the sheet. What did that matter anyway? It was _her_ brother that was dead, _her_ best friend in the world besides her Uncle Goten, and Queen Serenity hadn’t even seen Trunks since he’d been really little anyways, so why—“

                “If Trunks is dead, then my daughter, Usagi, is dead, too,” Serenity continued calmly. “But I’m not crying. Why is that, do you think? Come on,” she continued when Bra only shook her head in confusion. “Tell me, Bra. You’re a smart girl… you can figure this out easily.”

                “I… I…” She didn’t want to say it. To say something like that would be so disrespectful, so unbelievably mean, but… but her grandma had told her to say what she thought, hadn’t she? “I don’t know,” she finally whispered. “Either… either you don’t love your daughter…” But Serenity loved Usagi with all of her heart, that was common knowledge, even among the Saiyans. The Princess Usagi was beautiful, kind, sweet and perfect, _everything_ a princess should be, and her people and her Senshi possibly loved her even more than Serenity did.

                “Or?” Serenity pressed, unoffended by Bra’s reasoning. The girl would get the answer in a moment, so it didn’t matter.

                “Or… she’s not dead. And… and you would know it for a fact. A hundred percent sure, no doubts, if you’re not even a little worried,” Bra guessed.

                “If I tell you where he is, Bra, you have to keep it a secret. You can’t even tell your mother or father or Goten, no matter what. Not even if it seems like they’ll die from the grief of thinking that Trunks is dead,” Serenity whispered seriously. “Because if you tell them, you’ll condemn both of our peoples to death. Everyone in both systems will die.”

                “Everyone?” Bra asked with wide eyes.

                “Everyone,” Vegeta confirmed. “Pluto told us about it and you know she can see the future. She’s never wrong, _atti_. You can’t tell anyone that Trunks is alive. He and Usagi need to stay where they are until Pluto says it’s alright for them to return. They mated only a week ago and that alliance will save us all.”

                Bra was no stranger to sacrificing for the greater good—she was a princess, after all—so she nodded sagely. “How much longer?”

                “A little over a year, sweetheart,” Serenity informed her gently. “I know it seems like a long time but—“

                “No, _Ja’ta_ has been away longer than that. As long as Trunks is safe, I’ll be fine. And I won’t tell anyone. Thank you for telling me, Grandma. You too, Grandpa. And um… sorry for just bursting in, but there wasn’t a guard on the door,” Bra added with a smile as she turned to go, heading somewhere to think quietly so she could ready herself for her parents’ grief and how hard it would be to fight the temptation to tell them the truth.

                “No guard on the door?” Vegeta rumbled once Bra had left. “Where in the blazes are Nappa and Ami? They’re two of the most responsible people we know. I could see one of them missing for a good reason, but… both of them?”

                “Heh, maybe they’re making out in an empty room somewhere,” Serenity laughed, only to stop cold when Vegeta’s serious expression didn’t falter. “Oh come on, Geta, I was joking!”

                “That’s… actually not quite as farfetched as you might think. Someone’s been sending Ami Saiyan poetry. And I remember Nappa being quite good at writing it when I was younger. I wonder…”

                “Ami and Nappa!?” Serenity scoffed when her mate and king levelled her with a serious look. “You must be joking. He’s… he’s like, _twice_ her height!”

                “Let me finish, woman,” Vegeta chuckled good-naturedly. “I was going to say that I wonder if the look I caught him giving her the other day in the hallway was more than just him studying her. I walked out and he didn’t even notice me and stand as usual. He just kept looking at Ami while she was oblivious to the world, reading a… heh. I’ll bet ten credits that that paper she was reading was one of those letters… and that Nappa was watching for her reaction.”

                “He’ll break her in half,” Serenity stated grimly.

                “Well, if Nappa returns for breakfast and Ami doesn’t, we’ll know for sure, won’t we?” He joked as he made for the closet and his clothes. “And if they both return and I smell him on her… well, that’ll confirm it, too,” he added with a wink. “The nose doesn’t lie, my lady.”


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Vegeta-sei in this!

                Even with the magnetic field on Five making it difficult to sense another person’s ki, Trunks would have felt his father’s presence if he hadn’t been sleeping off the exhaustion that typically came from a seven hour bout of lusty newlywed sex. Usagi might have even felt it, thanks to Trunks’s tutelage in using her own ki, but like her mate, she was dead to the world as Vegeta fought back tears of grief, clutching his son’s bloodied and ruined cloak to his chest protectively as he searched for any sign of the princess.

                He came within a mile of their treehouse before another roll cloud made an appearance on the horizon, and with a heavy heart Vegeta gave up his search, his head down as he flew slowly back to his pod, his eyes on the ground and watching for any signs of life.

                Vegeta saw only a few _ox’ana_ making their way back into the trees as they sensed the storm and ran back to their warm thickets to ride out the new snowstorm, but as he drew closer to his ship he spotted a _wer’kha_ amongst the trees. It was so massive that it could only be a female, her thick pelt as white as the drifting snow around her.

 It was the _wer’kha_ matriarch. He was sure of it. The more he compared it to the giant trees he’d walked through and measured its size, the more he was positive that it was the largest female _wer’kha_ he’d ever laid eyes on.

At the same moment he thought to power up and blast the bitch to pieces for killing or eating his son—or both—the matriarch turned and loped into the trees, heading in the same direction that Vegeta had come from, moving deeper into the woods and obscuring his view of her.

So much for vengeance. Fuck it, he honestly just didn’t have it in him to chase her down. Not right now. Not when he wanted nothing more than to just go home and mourn his son, not when he was faced with the task of telling Bulma that the apple of her eye was dead… and that it was all his fault.

###############################

“I sorree,” She rumbled as she curled up around a shivering Usagi in the snow, noting that the tiny goddess was carrying a cub and should get inside where it was warm as soon as possible. It was too cold in this storm for her to be out; even with the parka on and several layers of clothing beneath, it was still colder than She could remember in many, many winters. And she had been through a lot of winters. “I shood have spoken. I was soo… sooprized, Osa Ge. I sorree. Forgive,” she finished, trying not to yawn. It was evident by her slurring of words that she was tired—it was mid-winter now and with a blizzard roaring, every instinct was telling her to curl up somewhere warm and sleep with her pack. But instead of giving into the pounding instinct to sleep, she was out here in the burning cold with her littlest sister and her sister’s mate, sniffing around for a scent whose owner was long gone.

“It’s not your fault,” Usa sobbed softly as she wiped furiously at her eyes and looked up at her mate, who hadn’t bothered to dress in anything but his loincloth and was warming himself with his ki as he continuously flared it as high as it could go, his hair spiked out in a halo of gold.

Unbeknownst to her, his ki was a good bit higher than it had ever gone, his desperation giving him more power than he’d ever grasped during his training. It was exhilarating, but at the same time it was the most disappointing fucking thing he’d ever encountered in his life… because all of the power he’d strived to attain wasn’t doing him a damned bit of good.

“Anything?” She asked hopefully.

“No. Stupid fucking magnetic field,” he sighed hopelessly. “He’s too far away by now. And She, it’s _not_ your fault,” the prince added softly. “If I’d been you, I would have been just as surprised… but I would have been surprised to actually see _my father_ here and not some lackey. I… I honestly can’t believe it was him. Are you sure it was _him_? Maybe it was my grandfather… shit, I’d put money on it if we had any.”

“I tell you, Trunks. No. No face like joors, no fur. Furless face, like Osa Ge. Tall hair. Water in eyes, like Osa Ge is now.”

The complete shock that the prince felt was so strong that Usagi felt it immediately, and she wasn’t surprised to hear only one word leave his mouth. “ _Bull **shit**_.”

“What?” She asked as the goddess shivered again and She wrapped around her a little tighter to keep her warm. “Where shit?”

“He thinks you’re pulling his leg, She,” Usagi murmured in explanation.

“Huh? What this pull leg? I no pull anee-ting. I warm Osa Ge, jesh? No pull,” She sputtered in confusion.

“There’s no fucking way in the universe my father was crying. I think you were seeing shit, She. No offense, but… _no_. There’s just _not_ a chance. My father, the great and fucking powerful Prince of all Saiyans doesn’t show emotion,” Trunks clarified sardonically. “Especially not on my behalf,” he added bitterly as he walked towards the crashed ship, following the footprints that the blizzard was rapidly filling in as it strengthened.

“I smell half Trunks, half other. I smell joor father, Trunks,” She stated patiently before deciding that Osa Ge needed to get inside now. No more severe cold for her until the cub was born, and if the goddess got stubborn about it, She would carry her home with her and force her to lie still. The matriarch couldn’t access the tree house, but it didn’t mean She couldn’t drag her kicking and screaming into a pile of sleepy, thickly-pelted _wer’kha_ and slump down on top of her to keep her from running away.

And She would do it, too, without bothering to listen to any arguments. She was just too sleepy to argue about anything and would simply force Usagi to comply for her own good—and the cub’s—if necessary.

Luckily for both of them, Trunks wasn’t oblivious to his mate’s shivering and finally stopped staring at the sky in vain, coming over to wrap Usagi in his arms, smiling down at her gently when she immediately ceased trembling the moment his ki surrounded her. “Aaaah… _waaaarm_ ,” she purred happily as she leaned into him. “So warm…”

“Goot,” She mumbled before yawning largely, her teeth glinting even amongst the violent whorl of white storming around them. “Joo warm. Joo go home. Sleep. Rest. I do same. Sleeping time is now, Osa Ge. Must sleep for cub,” she added with a gentle curling in of her whiskers, smiling as she nudged Usagi’s stomach with her nose. “Sleep many suns.”

“We don’t sleep like that, but I can tell you’re tired,” Usa said sympathetically, reaching out to include She in the familial embrace and giggling when her new sister licked her cheek and nuzzled her briefly. “Go on home and we’ll see you whenever the weather breaks.”

“Jesh,” She purred as she turned her head to Trunks and studied him for a long moment, regarding him heavily.

“What?” He asked. “What’d I do now?”

“Phhht… nothing. Brother,” She rumbled solemnly, bending her head to gently bump her head against his, her whiskers curling inwards in a smile when Trunks returned not only the bump, but the face nuzzle as well. “Joo goot mate to Osa Ge. Keep warm, keep safe. After storm, we hunt as one pack. Jesh?”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Trunks replied, unable to keep his teeth from flashing in a grin, flattered and beyond happy that She now considered him one of her pack. “Since Usa’ll be stuck at the house, I can use the bow in her place.”

“Why Osa Ge stuck in house?” She asked. “No want hunt?”

“Trunks apparently thinks that I won’t be hunting just because I’m pregnant,” Usagi snorted, then shot him an annoyed look when he opened his mouth to confirm just that. “Trunks, I sit on She’s back and shoot. I won’t put the baby in any danger and you know it, so just shut up before you find yourself sleeping outside for the rest of the winter.”

He wanted to ask what they’d do if she fell from the matriarch’s back, but Trunks wisely kept that thought to himself, all too aware that She would take it as an insult, as an accusation that she wouldn’t be careful with Usagi. “What if a _jam’eht_ falls on you or something?” He asked instead.

“Trunks… I’m not five. I _can_ look at the damned thing and tell how far away I need to be to keep something like that from happening. My depth perception won’t be ruined by your child growing inside of me. Besides, She’s fast; we had something like that almost happen last time and she darted right out of the way,” Usagi finished with a shrug.

“Osa Ge hunt up to last… hrm,” She grunted, pausing to puzzle out the goddess’s size before sniffing her belly. “Joo carry cub for… moon? Two moon?” She finally asked.

“I wish,” Usagi giggled. “Nine months. Er, moons. Why?”

“ _Wer’kha_ mother carry cub for full cycle. No hunt last two moons. Too fat. Veree slow. Sleep much. Do not know how long joo need be safe for cub, Osa Ge. Joo know?”

“It varies,” Usagi answered with a shrug. “I’ve helped deliver babies back home, and we usually recommend that the mother doesn’t overdo it during the last trimester. The last three months,” she amended. “But sitting and shooting a bow isn’t exactly going to wear me out, either. And by then, it’ll be late summer and there’ll be plenty of fruit and stuff. That’ll keep me busy if I feel like doing anything, and Trunks can help you with most of the hunting.”

“Goot. Want joo happy, Osa Ge, but no want joo hurt cub. Now go home, we talk more in one moon. Maybe two. Storm is big. Get stronger soon.”

“Wait, it’s going to get worse?” Usagi asked, noting that she’d had a hard enough time staying upright against the wind without She or Trunks to hang onto. “Trunks, will our house be able to withstand that kind of wind?”

“Yeah, we should be fine, but just to make sure, I’ll put some more nails in it when we get back. And we should go now, She’s right,” he added as he scooped her up in his arms and used his tail to arrange her parka better so she’d be warm. “She, take care of yourself, and if you need us or need more food, we have plenty.”

“Thank joo, Trunks. Keep Osa Ge safe. Be goot mate,” She rumbled, bumping his forehead once more, then Usagi’s before turning and disappearing into the swirling blizzard.

Trunks had them in the air then and held Usagi tightly as he hurried back to their treehouse, and once Usagi was inside and sweeping up the snow they’d tracked in, he was outside again and hammering away at the house and the tree branches.

As Usagi rummaged around in her subspace and worried about how much food they had, she could feel Trunks’s anger and disbelief over the fact that his father had been there less than an hour ago, and that both of them had not only missed him, but hadn’t even sensed him. She’d been trying her best not to think about it, but feeling his emotions only brought tears to her eyes again as she looked around the house and wondered if they’d be there for the rest of their lives.

 _Someone will come eventually,_ Trunks assured her through the bond, the sound of his hammering pausing as he thought about going inside and holding her. No, he needed to finish this, especially since the storm had really started to kick up and had shifted from a regular blizzard into a really fierce bout of thundersnow. _We won’t be stuck here forever, sweetheart. In fact, I’d put money on a hunting party landing within ten or twenty miles of us in the middle of summer. That’s when Father brought me out on my first_ wer’kha _hunt, since it’s easier to spot them in the trees in summer than it is in winter._

 _I hope you’re right,_ she whispered, clutching desperately at the hope that they would be rescued before the baby was born.

She was quiet after that, trying her best not to cry as she put some water in a homemade pot and hung it over the fire with a large hunk of meat inside of it. Usagi went over their stock of vegetables then, including the few she had in her subspace and the cache of onions she’d dug up in the woods one day. She had a handful of carrot-like things, too, and while they were meager at best, she wanted to save them in case they needed them.

“Put them in, sweetheart,” Trunks urged her as he climbed down through the hatch and closed it quickly, shooting her an apologetic look for all the snow that had blown in and signaling for her to continue, that he would sweep it up. “Put the carrots in the stew, it’s not much of a stew without them. Besides,” he added with a smile, trying his best to cheer her up, “I just might know where to find some tubers once the storm clears a bit. They taste like potatoes if you cook them right. We can get those, and if you show me where you found the carrots, I might be able to find us some more.”

“Don’t worry,” he added gently as he came up behind her and wrapped his arms and tail around her comfortingly. “I know it’s hard not to worry, but I swear we won’t run out of food, and we _will_ be found. Besides… I thought we’d agreed to think of this as a really long honeymoon?” Trunks said with a soft purr and a nuzzle to her shoulder. “None of the responsibilities of the court…” He kissed her neck and nibbled at it for a moment. “…no one harping at us for sleeping in a little…” A kiss to her collarbone as he slid her parka off and tossed it aside. “…just you and me, Usa.”

“It’s scary when you’re the one being positive,” she half-joked, barely managing a weak smile for his benefit. “You… you’re not bothered at all by the fact that your father was just here, Trunks? It doesn’t make you sad?”

“You know better, Usa,” he sighed, “but there’s nothing I can do about it and dwelling on it definitely won’t make me feel better. Honestly… I’m furious with myself for not sensing him. He’s _my father_. I _should_ have sensed him, even if this stupid planet makes it damned near impossible to sense ki from more than a couple miles out. And… and I… I wonder if he would have sensed me if I’d ascended as high as possible the moment She had come and gotten us. Or if I’d flown faster—“

“That’s not your fault, Trunks,” Usagi replied, turning in his arms and kissing him soothingly. “That would be like blaming me for not putting on my boots faster. We’ll just… we’ll just do as you say. Treat it like a vacation,” she offered as she separated from him to get the wooden chopping block he’d made a few days ago, the skinny, slightly wilted carrots fisted in one hand and an onion in the other.

“And I’ll put in the stupid carrots,” Usa told him, letting out a small, happy sigh when he smiled, knowing that she was telling him in a roundabout way that she trusted him to make sure that they’d have enough food. Sure, they had meat, but she wasn’t Saiyan and couldn’t survive on only meat for the rest of the winter. Neither could the baby, and if they weren’t careful they would have nothing left for her to eat except for the meat in her subspace and her infinite supply of sandwiches. And the sandwiches weren’t exactly the most nutritious thing for her to eat day in and day out. “Here, you can cut up the onions. I’ve done enough crying for one day.”

“Yes, _r’sha_.”

Even though he was just as upset as she was about missing Prince Vegeta, Trunks managed to wring a few smiles out of her and even a couple laughs as they prepared supper and settled in to munch on a couple sandwiches to tide them over, since the stew wouldn’t be ready for several hours.

And when she’d finished eating and had settled into thoughtful silence, Trunks  scooted in behind her and ran his lips up and down her neck, letting his hands wander beneath the fur top that only covered just enough skin for modesty.

“What are you doing?” Usagi murmured when he smoothed a calloused hand over a firm breast and thumbed the nipple.

“Distracting you,” he replied simply. “Are you complaining?”

It went without saying that he was distracting himself as well; Usagi could feel how he was beating himself up for not sensing Vegeta, how he was consciously aware that it wasn’t his fault but he still couldn’t help placing the blame on his own disbelief and lack of hustle. “No,” she breathed, deciding that a distraction would be most welcome, turning so that she was straddling his lap and sighing in contentment when he kissed her tenderly. “Definitely not complaining.”

########################################

“Hey, Grammy! I’ve come for the mirror!” Bra chirped as she strode into the queen’s sitting room, her hair soaked from her post-training shower. “Where’s Paw Paw?”

“With your father,” Serenity sighed. It had been a month since Vegeta’s return and the entire planet was in mourning for the crown prince… but no one was mourning Trunks’s reported death harder than his father. Not even Bulma had worked herself into the state of depression that Prince Vegeta had, and it was bad enough that even King Vegeta was beginning to worry for his son.

Bra’s smile faltered at that and she nodded solemnly. “I didn’t think it would be hard to keep it a secret when you swore me to promise, you know?” She whispered. “But seeing Daddy like this… it’s hard. It’s really, really hard. Grammy. I’m afraid for him. I’m worried that he might do something stupid. So’s Mom. She didn’t say it exactly, but I know that’s what she meant when she asked me to keep an eye on him, to not let him be alone for too long. She’s so worried that they’re still sharing a bed.”

Wanting to wipe the sadness from Bra’s eyes, Serenity rose from her seat and handed her the mirror from her subspace, kissing the top of her head. “Everything will be alright. Promise. In fact, your grandfather and I have some wonderful news.”

“I already know about the baby,” Bra chuckled. “I can smell it. I’ve smelled it on you for over a week, Grammy. Now, how’s my niece or nephew?” She asked as she waved her hand over the mirror, only to gag and wave it over the glass again. “Ew! Gods, do they _ever_ stop fucking!? Trunks, you’ve put the baby in her, staaahp already! It’s **_in_**! You don’t have to keep going at it like animals! _Gross_!”

“Well, I guess that answers the question of how they’re doing,” Serenity choked out as primly as possible, taking the mirror and quickly stowing it away. “And language,” she corrected as an afterthought. “A princess shouldn’t swear so much, Bra.”

“You’d’ve sworn, too, if you’d seen your daughter sitting on my brother’s face,” Bra sputtered. “Ew. Just ew. I know Mom’s said it’s supposed to be a beautiful thing and all but I can’t see how in the hell _that_ is _beautiful_. Mating is one thing, but putting your mouth… _there_? Girls go pee there!”

Blushing hotly and rubbing the bridge of her nose, Serenity could only shrug weakly as she recalled the king putting his mouth _there_ only that morning, and she turned even brighter as it dawned on her for the first time that Bra could possibly smell sex on them whenever she visited. Well, she was definitely going to make a point of scrubbing thoroughly afterwards whenever they made love. Gods, the very notion was embarrassing!

“Ugh, your face says it all,” Bra continued, “Paw Paw does it, too. Saiyan males are so damned gross.”

“Well, in his defense,” Serenity choked out, her voice suddenly much higher than normal as she strangled on the words, “it’s um… very pleasant. For me, I mean. It um… how old _are_ you again, Bra?”

“I’ll be thirteen in a month,” her granddaughter replied in amusement. “And don’t worry, I already know all about sex and mating—my father might be a prude, but my mom definitely isn’t and she’s made sure that I know _all_ about the birds and the bees. Kinda hard not to know all about it when you’re raised on Vegeta-sei… _or_ if you have an Uncle Raditz. Why? Did you need me to answer some questions? Give some pointers? I’ve heard how all you Lunarians are as prudish as Daddy,” She teased.

“Oh, you little tart,” Serenity snorted, though it wasn’t without a laugh as she lightly whacked Bra’s bottom and waved towards the door. “Your grandfather has been more than kind enough to teach me all about the bird and the bees, thank you very much. Why don’t you go and cheer your father up since you’re in a teasing mood? You can tell him you offered to give me pointers. I’m sure that’ll make him crack a smile.”

“You know,” Bra said slowly, “it just might. Good idea, Grammy.” She moved towards the door and opened it, but couldn’t leave without a parting jab to make her grandma smile. “I’ll be back for that sex talk later on. Make sure you bring some paper so you can take notes.”

################################################

The crack about offering to give Serenity pointers didn’t even bring a smirk to Vegeta’s face; he only laid there in bed, staring at the wall, and when Bra sighed and ran her fingers through his dirty hair, she heard him choke out a quiet sob. “Daddy,” she whispered, ignoring her grandfather’s warning look, knowing all too well that he suspected she was about to spill the beans. Close, but not quite. The king could just shove it up his ass for a minute and trust her, since Bra simply couldn’t take anymore of watching her father cry and nurse a broken heart. “Daddy, listen to me,” she pressed when fresh tears leaked from his eyes and onto the pillow. “I know that what you found on Five is pretty damning evidence, but… I refuse to believe it. And I think you should refuse to believe it, too.”

“He’s dead, Bra,” Vegeta rasped, his eyes full of tears and grief as he finally focused on something besides the wall and looked up at her. “Trunks is dead.”

“ _No_. He’s _not_ ,” she stated firmly, her jaw twitching in a mirror image of his whenever that stubborn streak came out of anyone of their House.

“Yes,” the prince sighed wearily, “he is.” His eyes fell from her face then and he returned to staring at the wall, and when Bra bared her teeth at him and growled, he only sobbed again.

“What in the fuck is wrong with you, Dad!?” Bra yelled down at him. “You’re supposed to be the great Prince of all Saiyans! You’re supposed to be Billy Badass, the great destroyer of worlds and all that stupid shit! And here you are, crying your eyes out like a baby! I _get_ why you’re sad! We _all_ get it!” She continued, her volume increasing despite the fact that her mother had run into the room and was yelling at her to stop it. No, damn it, she would _not_ stop it! She wouldn’t let her father wallow in his grief until it killed him!

“Well, we all miss him, too, but if he was here right now he’d be ashamed of how you’re behaving! Yeah, _I said it_!” She snapped at her mother when Bulma stared at her in horror. “And it’s TRUE! Trunks would be _ashamed of you_ for ignoring the living because you’re too wrapped up in mourning the dead! Daddy, you’re a fucking _prince_! Now get off your ass and _act like it_ , because you’ll get no more pity from me!”

“BRA! You get your ass back here right this minute, young lady!” Bulma shrieked when the princess turned and walked through the doorway. “Come here and apologize, your father is—“

“Wallowing in grief, yeah, I KNOW!” Bra shouted in reply as she turned back around. “And I’m well aware I’m grounded,” she added, “but I don’t give a shit. If you want to beat my ass for it…” She stalked back into the bedroom at that, scooped up her father’s armor from the floor, and dumped it right in front of his face. “…then you can meet me in the training room in five minutes. All this laying around’s made you soft, old man!”

Vegeta didn’t show up at the training room as Bra had hoped, but if he had they wouldn’t have been able to spar anyway—the training room was locked and there was no light shining from under the door, and unless she was mistaken, she could have sworn that she heard moaning, purring and growling coming from the other side… and a voice that sounded an awful lot like Nappa’s. “They’re all obsessed with fucking,” Bra sputtered, rolling her eyes as she decided to track down her Uncle Turles for a spar.

At least he wouldn’t be trying to get laid; the only things Turles cared about were his ship, his rum, and his fruit trees. And maybe if Bra played her cards right, she could talk him into letting her have a nip from his flask, like he’d done on every single one of her birthdays since she’d turned five. The gods only knew how badly she could use a drink right then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone wants to say that Bra swears too much or she's out of character, I don't think she does or she is. She's has a mixture of both parents' more aggressive traits, and since this is also a Bra that was raised on Vegeta-sei as a warrior princess, I see her actions as plausible. 
> 
> That said, I'm sure it was easy enough to figure out what she was doing there with Vegeta, and we all know how he typically reacts to being called weak, soft, etc. 
> 
> Next chapter: TIME JUMP! ...and a little something special for you Vegebul fans.
> 
> If you haven't noticed, the end of this chapter was a MONTH after Vegeta returned from Five. We're gonna start moving along a bit now, people! And YES, I will eventually get that Nappami sidefic posted so yall can see how it lines up with Bra's observations. :D


	22. Chapter 22

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry I've been absent so long yall, but I'm going through a lot and I'll leave it at that. Please at least comment if you enjoy this, it'll help me feel better! Love yall!

                He could hear her crying from outside the bathroom.

                His mate, who had been so strong for him, who hadn’t cried in front of him in weeks, was wailing like it was the end of the world, curled up in his bed. Vegeta could feel her pain through the bond, how she mourned their son, but also how she’d worried herself to tears over her mate. She was worried he’d do something stupid, do something rash, that he would give her another man to mourn before another month had even passed.

                She’d tried everything to bring him up out of the depression; she’d cooked his favorite foods, had sat and read to him, had tried her best to joke with him, had even laid there with him and let him cry on her shoulder. She’d even offered sex as a distraction, all to no avail. Bulma hadn’t admonished him once or shamed him for his tears, either. No one had, except for his daughter… and Vegeta couldn’t help but acknowledge that his little princess was right.

                She was right and he knew it, and as he turned off the light and silently left the bathroom to join his estranged mate in bed, Vegeta knew that his first act of getting his shit together should be to console Bulma. He was supposed to be the strong one, the one that Bulma leaned on, and in some bizarre twist of fate, the opposite had been true.

                It had been the great Prince of all Saiyans that had fallen apart, and not the princess of Mercury. “Bulma,” he whispered as he climbed into bed with her, hesitating only a moment before using his arms and tail to roll her over and hold her tightly to his chest.

She immediately stopped crying, of course, sucking in huge, gulping breaths, but instead of crying with her or telling her to shut up—what she would expect from the _normal_ Vegeta—he bent his head and kissed her lips. “G—Geta?”

“You offered me the same last week,” he breathed. “I thought to make the same offer. If you want to,” he added, hesitating again, looking away, unable to meet her eyes. Before the final fight that had driven the wedge between them, Vegeta would have simply taken her with the knowledge that she wanted him. She’d always wanted him then, and he’d always wanted her. There was never a question in either of their minds whether or not their lovemaking was consensual for both of them. But now… now he didn’t know what to do.

Maybe explaining it would be best? “I… I wanted to thank you. I just don’t know how.” Ok, maybe not. When she leaned into him but was only silent, Vegeta felt his face heating up in embarrassment. “I… forget it. It was stupid of me to think—“

“Yes,” Bulma whispered, cutting him short as she turned his face to make him look at her and she briefly pressed her lips to his. “I’ve missed you.” That was the honest truth, even though she’d never spoken it in seven years. She’d missed him during all that time, missed the closeness they’d once shared, the stout friendship, and even though he’d never said it and probably never would… the love. Yes, she’d definitely missed the love. “Give me a moment and I’ll go fix my—“

“No.” It was Vegeta’s turn to cut her off, and while he could feel her ire rising because he’d always had a problem with her using birth control, he risked another kiss. “No,” he repeated softly. “Let the gods decide. We left it up to the gods when we mated and I think we should do the same now. A new beginning. And if…” He chewed his lower lip, afraid to speak the words, afraid she’d take them the wrong way, that she wouldn’t understand.

“If there’s a baby,” Bulma finished for him.

“Yes. If there’s a baby,” he answered quietly, his voice thick with grief, “I swear to you here and now that I’ll give it everything I should have given Trunks. I swear it on my tail, Bulma.”

“Alright, then… I’ll hold you to that promise, Geta.”

“I know,” he replied solemnly. “I want you to.”

There was a long pause between them, and Vegeta felt awkward again and could feel the same from her coming through the bond. Neither of them was sure what to do; it was as if they’d both forgotten how to make the first move, but when the prince finally sighed and opened his mouth to apologize, her lips silenced him before he could even speak.

From that moment forward it was like riding a bike, and the kiss quickly became ravenous, needy and desperate with seven years’ worth of longing.

He’d meant to give her foreplay, to assure himself that she was ready, to go slow and give her what he thought his mate deserved after he’d been such an intolerable, unforgiveable ass for seven years, but Bulma thwarted his plans by wrapping her legs around his waist and gripping him, taking him inside of her with a soft moan of pleasure.

“Bulma,” he breathed between kisses, his eyes rolling back when he found her wet and more than ready for him, just as tight and delicious as he remembered, his hips rolling instinctively to fill her, pausing only when she flinched at the size of him.

“Don’t stop,” she urged him as she raked her nails down his back and bucked her hips into his demandingly. She’d always loved that slight twinge of pain whenever he took her, the way his girth was almost too much for her body to handle, how he made her feel full to bursting. She loved it and she loved him, and if he dared to stop she’d probably rake her nails down his face instead of his back. “Please, Vegeta—“

A crushing kiss silenced her, and Vegeta groaned loudly as his tongue danced with hers demandingly while he began to move in earnest, taking her just as roughly and desperately as he always had in the past, showing her how much he wanted her, how much he _needed her._ And not only with his body, but through the bond as well, his fingers bunched in her long blue hair to hold her lips to his as his free hand pinned her to the bed. _Come for me, woman,_ he demanded in her mind. _Come for me and be mine again._

 _I’m yours, Vegeta,_ Bulma whispered deliriously, shaking as a climax rolled through her, overwhelming every nerve ending and setting her on fire. _I’m yours… I’ve always been yours._

 _My woman,_ he purred happily through the bond, her words loosening a knot in his heart that he hadn’t even been aware of. He suddenly felt lighter, felt free, and as she came again, Vegeta found himself slowing his thrusts in order to savor how right she felt, his movements taking on a gentle, tender note. _My mate… my Bulma…_

Even as she came a third time, it wasn’t lost on Bulma that her prince had started genuinely making love to her for the first time since she’d been pregnant with Bra, and she moaned in approval as she broke the kiss to find the faded, long-neglected scar on his shoulder. It hadn’t even been five minutes since he’d entered her, but Bulma already felt the need to sink her teeth into him and it was becoming harder and harder to resist the urge. She wanted him to come with her, wanted him to reciprocate the bite, wanted to feel the mating bond return to full strength, just as it had been years ago before she’d cast him out of her life. “Vegeta… please,” she whispered before raking her teeth over the faded mating mark.

                They’d been apart for years, but that didn’t change the fact that they knew each other better than anyone else did, and Vegeta didn’t need her to explain what she meant—he knew exactly what she wanted, and even though he wanted to savor how good it felt inside of her and make it last just a little bit longer, he wouldn’t deny her. To be fair, he wanted to reforge the bond just as badly as she did, to feel their souls entwining as tightly as their bodies, to reclaim the close intimacy that he’d missed sharing with her since they’d separated.

                A quick nod was the only response he gave before finding her shoulder and sinking his teeth into it immediately, emitting a low growl of possessive approval when she bucked in his arms and cried out. Vegeta was swamped with white-hot pleasure only a second later when she instinctively returned the mark, taking him with her, her body milking him for all it was worth. “Mine,” he sighed happily after slumping on top of her, purring loudly as he turned his head to capture her lips with his and rolled them to their sides.

                “Mmhmm,” Bulma agreed as she kissed him lazily, her eyes slipping shut as she enjoyed his hands sliding over her bare skin, absently petting her just as he always had in the past after an intense bout of lovemaking.

                In that moment they only knew each other and their happiness. The guilt of forgetting that their son was dead would come later, but when it came they wouldn’t face the grief alone. For the first time in years, they would truly face something together, supported by the other even more than they had since Vegeta had returned from Five.

                “I love you,” Bulma whispered between kisses.

                Vegeta broke away then, his eyes taking in her flushed, content expression as he tried to find the right words. “And you,” he murmured. He’d never really been able to say it, but he knew she could feel it through the bond. But still… “I never stopped, Bulma. I just… I let my pride get the better of me. I’m sorry. I should’ve never allowed myself to forget what was really important. My family,” he added before she could ask him what he meant. “You alone are more important to me than that war ever was and… I lost sight of that. Forgive me.”

                “I do, Vegeta.” They had a ways to go before _everything_ was right between them, but Bulma smiled up at him before pulling him back down to her for another kiss. _I forgive you._

               

##########################################

 

“Trunks, _come on_ ,” Usagi whined, “I gotta pee!”

“Crackers first,” he mumbled sleepily as he employed the arm she wasn’t using as a pillow to keep her pulled tightly to him. “You got any left?”

“A couple packs,” Usagi giggled as she reached into her subspace to draw out a half-eaten package of saltines. “And thanks, I nearly forgot not to get up. I think I can hold it for a minute.”

“Mmm… better than smelling your vomit all day because we can’t pop the hatch for fresh air,” he replied, half-serious and half-amused as he listened to the blizzard still raging outside. It hadn’t stopped for six weeks and other than to empty the pot, grab wood for the fire and clear the roof and surrounding branches of snow, Trunks hadn’t once bothered to venture out. Usagi hadn’t left at all and whenever she got bored, the cabin fever settled in and he had to think of new ways to entertain her.

Thankfully for both of them, making love was _always_ an option… and they’d used that option many, _many_ times, even when they’d gotten a little smelly. Thankfully as well, Usagi had helped him fashion a bath out of some leftover scrap metal from the ship—it wasn’t too big and barely qualified as a washtub for clothes, but if they helped each other with the washing it wasn’t too bad.

                Predictably, helping each other wash also typically wound up dissolving into sex, sometimes before both of them were even fully clean, but neither of them minded, too caught up in enjoying the newness of it all, both of them acting like typical newlyweds.

                “Okay, can I get up now?” Usagi asked after she’d slowly eaten six crackers and a little cheese while sipping on some water in between. “Please?” She pressed when he chuckled and nipped at her shoulder teasingly. “Seriously, Trunks! I’m about to pee myself, I’m not joking!”

                “Fine,” he grumbled with false annoyance, tipping her a wink when she squirmed out of his arms and out from under all of the fur blankets they’d made during the blizzard, stretching lazily beneath them as she hurried to the pot behind the curtain. “I’ve got the fire, you get back under and stay warm,” he called after he’d realized how cold the air was, shivering as he slipped out of the bed to grab some wood to stoke the fire, carefully using only a hint of his ki to get it going.

The small house would be warm in no time, thankfully, but he didn’t want Usagi to be cold for any longer than necessary, and when she returned from the tiny bathroom he gave her a nudge through the bond to get her attention and nodded towards the bed. “Any nausea, sweetheart?”

“Nope, I think I’m good,” Usagi replied as she slid back under the welcoming furs. “I’m really glad you knew that trick with the crackers; back home we use these pills for pregnant mothers that are safe for the babies, too.”

“Heh, I’m just full of useful information,” Trunks chuckled. “Like the seaweed thing—tell me, how much toothpaste we got left, anyway?”

“Enough for about a month… maybe a little longer,” Usagi replied with a grimace. She certainly was _not_ looking forward to brushing her teeth with seaweed when they ran out, but Trunks had promised her that he’d done it plenty of times whenever he went out on training excursions with his father and grandfather and that it wasn’t nearly as bad as she thought. “You’d better find me some mint to chew like you promised, though.”

“As soon as it starts sprouting in the spring,” Trunks confirmed as he rose to his feet, stretched again, and went to use the bathroom as well.

“What are we going to do next winter when the ocean’s frozen over and we can’t get seaweed?” Usagi wondered aloud. “I mean… I don’t want to be stuck here through another winter, Trunks, but what if we are? And after the baby comes, what will we use for birth control? Gods,” she breathed, “I can’t imagine giving birth here more than once. I’m mentally prepared for it this time, but we’re really, _really_ tempting fate if we wind up doing it multiple times. There might not be complications with one pregnancy, but the odds’ll catch up with us sooner or later.”

“I know, I know,” he replied soothingly from the bathroom as he washed his hands in a basin they’d made from scrap metal. “Usa, we’ve been over it a million times. We’ll just have to take it all as it comes and hope for the best. There’s nothing we can do to change our situation. As soon as the storm clears, I’ll go dig through both of our ships again and maybe I’ll be able to salvage something if I combine it with stuff from your subspace. Maybe with a little luck, I can fashion a transmitter. Alright?”

Usagi didn’t need to utilize the bond to know that such a thing was probably pointless, but it was all they had, especially since his people officially thought he was dead. If Vegeta had really been crying when She had spotted him, he’d definitely assumed they’d been killed in the crash.

Rescue wouldn’t come; not on its own, anyway. They would have to be proactive and try their best to contact anyone, even if that happened to only be a ship passing close to Five’s atmosphere. Yes, if they could build a beacon or a transmitter that was at least strong enough to get outside of the planet’s atmosphere, they’d stand a chance of being rescued.

“That’s my girl,” Trunks purred as he returned from the bathroom and kissed her forehead. “Don’t give up hope, ok? Other than each other, it’s really all we’ve got.”

“I know, Trunks. I know.” Try as she might, though, Usagi couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice as her hand covered her flat stomach protectively.

#######################

They both woke with a start one night three months later, staring into the darkness with wide eyes, and as Trunks lit the room with his ki he looked to Usagi in confusion. “What is it?”

“I…” It took her a long moment but she was the first to figure out what had woken them, and her smile lit up the room even brighter than Trunks’s energy. “You hear that!?”

“Hear wha… oh.” Blinking rapidly, Trunks scrambled to his feet and went to the hatch to throw it open and beamed at his mate even when a truckload of snow landed on his head and piled at his feet. “It’s stopped! The blizzard’s finally stopped!” He crowed. “Come on, get dressed, babe!”

“It’s gotta be three in the morning, Trunks!” Usagi giggled even as she rolled out of bed, grasping his hand when he remembered her swollen belly all too late and helped to pull her to her feet. Once she was standing it didn’t take long to get dressed, though, and Usa was wrapped tightly in her furs by the time Trunks had dressed and was waiting for her at the top of the ladder, ready to help her climb it.

“That’s it! Come on, my snow queen!” Trunks laughed as he lifted her off the third rung from the top and set her on her feet on the roof of their house, grinning like an idiot when Usagi gasped at the sight of the large full moon beaming its light down on the snow. “I can’t really look at it for obvious reasons. Is it as pretty as I think it is?”

“Beautiful,” she breathed, fumbling in her subspace for her camera and snapping shots of the snow that had drifted to only four feet below the bottom of their lovenest. Thank the gods Trunks had seen this coming way ahead of time and dug out the snow beneath the house to get to their piles of firewood whenever he could. If he hadn’t, they would have likely been buried by now. “It’s an ocean of snow, Trunks.”

“I’ll get to see it in the morning,” he sighed. “Glad we made me those snowshoes.”

“Can we go see She!?” Usagi asked hopefully. “Please!?”

“Sure, sweetheart,” Trunks chuckled. “Anything you want. Let’s just hope we can find them in all this mess.”

###############

They didn’t have to look hard to find She.

The moment the sun was up, Usagi was actually out the hatch before Trunks was, and she tripped and fell on her face several times before relearning how to walk in the snowshoes after she hadn’t used them in months, getting up repeatedly, determined to get moving. She was even ten paces away from the treehouse before Trunks made it outside in his own shoes, laughing at her when she faceplanted yet again.

“Maybe we should just try flying,” he snickered as he flew over and set her on her feet again.

“No, my ki’s been funny, remember?” She huffed. “I’d rather walk, anyway; four months of being cooped up’s made me a little crazy.” Usagi looked up then and beamed brightly, pecking Trunks on the mouth before pointing to what had made her smile. “Besides, it looks like my ride’s already here! _She_!” The Lunarian called loudly, squinting at the bright glare of the rising sun on the snowdunes. “ _Ra’dir_! Let’s go explore!”

A roar was all Usagi heard in response and she giggled as she watched the matriarch pick up speed, switching from an easy lope to a full-out run as the princess hobbled towards her slowly on her snowshoes.

When they met it was with Usagi being tackled into the snow playfully, sinking down three feet into the dune before popping back up with a laugh and hugging She around the neck. “I missed you!”

“Miss joo, sister,” She chuckled before frowning at the sight of Usagi’s belly. “Hn. Cub no come. Forget.  I no play so hard if I know. Sorry.”

“Haha, I’m ok!” Usa assured her as she allowed a frowning Trunks to help her out of the hole. “And you. Stop making that face, mister. We’re outside! Be _happy_!”

Fighting down his beast’s ridiculous urging to stuff her back in the house for the remainder of her pregnancy, Trunks managed a nod and a shaky smile… at least until She spoke again.

“Osa Ge ride? Go hunt?”

“HELL YES!” Usagi cried just as Trunks yelled “HELL NO!” at the top of his lungs.

“I’ll be fine!” The goddess added hurriedly, giving him her best puppy-dog eyes and clasping her hands together in a begging gesture. “Please!? Come on, Trunks! We talked about this months ago! I’ll be on She’s back the entire time, right, She!?”

“Jesh. Osa Ge safe with _wer’kha_ , Trunks. _J’ha nava m’yo_.” When the young Saiyan only frowned and shook his head even as Usagi pulled her bow and quiver from her subspace, She thought quickly to dissolve the argument that she knew was about to occur if someone didn’t intervene. “Trunks come, too. Males no hunt in pack… but make… hm… what word this?”

“Exception,” Usa chimed brilliantly as she kissed She’s snout and then turned to her mate to give him the same treatment. “Come on, honey! Please! I want to hunt with She!”

“We need meat, Trunks,” She rumbled seriously. “Cubs come seven suns ago. Many mothers weak. _Buh’tir, ta’fr_.”

Being called her brother did him in and Trunks sighed and nodded. “Alright, fine. I’ll come. But I saw in Usa’s head when that _jam’eht_ nearly landed on her, just like you told me, and something like that simply can’t happen again, alright? Not while she’s pregnant. Her body’s not at sturdy as yours or mine and just a single blow to her stomach could make her lose the baby.”

“Jesh, _ta’fr_. Unnastan,” She purred as she knelt in the snowdune and used her tail to lift Usagi onto her back, who was grinning from ear to ear and vibrating with excitement. “Osa Ge, we no run fast, jesh? Exception.”

“Compromise,” Usagi corrected her, “not exception. And yes, I agree. Not too fast. But once the baby’s born?”

“Heh, joor cub come, we race joor mate, Osa Ge. We…” Fishing for the right words, She grinned toothily at Trunks, who was smirking knowingly at her. “…we kick Saiyan ass. Jesh?”

“Oh, we’ll kick it all over Five, for sure! Now come on! Let’s go get our sisters! Is Ke coming?”

“Jesh. All not weak will come,” She replied, her voice worried as she counted in her head for the hundredth time just how few of them there were for this hunt, and how many of them were older and slower or too young to have much hunting experience. Many of the sisters coming along would mark this day as their first hunt, but it couldn’t be helped that they were going along earlier than usual. She hadn’t told Usagi the full truth, that they had also lost many of their hunters through the winter due to the bitter cold and the unrelenting snow. Many had died a warrior’s death by sacrificing themselves to feed the clan. She had even offered her own meat to them many times but the clan had respectfully refused, stating that they needed her once the snows melted. They needed her to hunt, but more importantly, they needed her to lead.

Especially since two of the visiting clans had disappeared in the winter, vowing that they wouldn’t stand for She’s tolerance of the golden goddess and her Saiyan mate. If She didn’t handle those other matriarchs carefully, there would be all-out war… and Osa Ge and Trunks would be in the center of it. If that happened, she had no doubt that countless _wer’kha_ would be killed as a result… but as a result of Osa Ge’s wrath, not She’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: the hunt.... and war.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something tells me yall have been waiting for this one for awhile, now... :D Lessee how you like me when you get to the end.

                Before, Usagi had been ecstatic to head towards the clan’s den, but now that they were there, she fought the urge to cry at what she found when She slid to a stop just inside the clearing.

                Ribs. Far too many ribs. Ribs everywhere—the old, the young, even nursing mothers… all of them so thin that their ribs were showing, and when the Lunarian princess dropped from She’s back, she realized that the matriarch was even thinner than the rest of them. _How_ had she _not_ noticed that!?

                Following her line of sight, She chuffed at the tears in her little sister’s eyes and bent down to Usa’s level, licking them from her cheeks. “Hard winter. Iz alright, Osa Ge. Seen harder winter than this. We go hunt, get food, no more hard. Jesh?”

                Instead of nodding or even crying some more, Usagi surprised her, Trunks, and an approaching Ke by erupting angrily. “You could have come to me for help!” She shouted. “We have food, She! We have lots of food!”

                “Osa Ge, joo have little food. Not enough for—“

                “It would’ve been enough to feed the babies! Enough to keep a few of you from starving!” She continued hotly. “It might not be that much to someone your size, but I could’ve fed the cubs! Or a few of the pregnant mothers that are smaller than you!” With that, Usagi called in everything from her subspace that they’d killed that wasn’t already cooked, nodding at the impressive pile of meat decisively.

                “Osa Ge,” She ground out, “joo no do this in front of sistah. No growl at me. Do in private. Unnastan?”

                “No question She in public,” Ke elaborated. “Iz bad. Joo _he_ , joo _cha he_ … but joo _sh’fr_. _Sh’fr_ no question She.”

                It was obvious that the matriarch was just barely keeping her temper in check, but Usagi only waved Trunks away when he stepped forward as she fought the urge to bare her teeth in a clear display of her disapproval. “I’m sorry for yelling at you in front of them, She, and I won’t do it again. But next time the clan is hungry, _come to me_. _You’re family_. We may not have much, but _you’re family_ and we’ll do whatever we can to help you. It’s an _insult_ to me—to _us_ —if you need help and you don’t ask. Understand?”

                Because her words were spoken softly, She let it slide with a nod before turning to her clan and switching to her native tongue. “Our little sister is generous and offers all she has. Vo, you are in charge while I’m gone on the hunt. Ration out what Osa Ge has graciously shared. Make sure that the weakest are fed first.” And the weakest would be fed well, since Usagi and Trunks had only managed to eat one of the _wer’kha_ out of nearly everything they’d killed since their arrival. Including She’s former mate, the eight that Trunks had killed that night and the kills from the battle when he’d died, there were fourteen fully grown male warriors on the ground. That was more than enough to feed every cub and nursing mother several times over. More than enough to satisfy anyone who was hungry until the hunting party returned that evening or the next morning.

                There were several _ox’ana_ as well, and She realized that she hadn’t exaggerated when she’d counted them all. Usagi really had given them _everything_ at hers and Trunks’s disposal. “Joo goot sistah, Osa Ge,” She rumbled before bumping her forehead to the blonde goddess’s and nuzzling her cheek. “Tank joo. Will waste nothing, promise.”

                “I know you won’t,” Usagi replied quietly, “and… I really am sorry that I yelled. I just… I don’t want _anyone_ to suffer, especially not when I can help.”

                She had kept her temper because the goddess was new to the clan, but it faded altogether as She realized something she’d nearly forgotten over the winter—that Osa Ge only grew angry at the sight of suffering or injustice. Of seeing harm against those that she loved. “Osa Ge, joo good sistah,” She repeated, her tone far heavier with emotion and respect than before. Joo make good She one day. Joo dam go to _heu_ , joo be She of joor clan… joo be fierce She. Strong She. No one growl at joo evah. They know better.”

                “Thanks, She,” Usagi said warmly, hugging the matriarch warmly around the neck—well, as far as she could get her arms around it, anyway. Part of her wanted to contradict She, to explain that Lunarians didn’t do things the same way, that she would be queen one day, yes, but that there were checks and balances in place to limit a monarch’s power. The other part of her snuffed out the urge to correct the _wer’kha_ , well aware that she’d just been given one of the highest compliments possible, and that to argue the point would only lessen the understanding between them and raise the cultural confusion. “I love you, you know that, right?”

                “ _Tah’kha’or_ … jesh. Saiyans no say it, but we say,” Ke informed her with a chuckle, grinning with her whiskers at Trunks, who’d blushed at the sound of the word. “Pah… joo say. All Saiyan say. Just no let other Saiyan hear joo say.”

                “Alright, that’s actually pretty accurate,” Trunks sputtered. “It’s stupid, I know. But it stems from a tradition of ignoring your loved ones and your family in public, so as not to make them a target for your enemies. We had Frieza’s reign to thank for that, and before him, his father’s. My generation is the first to really be free of the PTO, the first to break away from some of the now-pointless traditions we have.”

                “Then joo say,” Ke teased as she slowly padded forward on creaking old bones, grinning when he backed up a step, head-bumping him and nuzzling his cheek as family. “Joo say to Osa Ge. No moar stupid rules.”

                Saving the day, Usagi maneuvered herself and her growing belly between them and gave Ke an admonishing look. “He does say it to me,” she giggled. “In private. Now stop picking on my mate and let’s go hunt, ok? I’m hungry, and all’s I got left to eat now is a bunch of vegetables, some cookies, and two chocolate cakes that we’re saving for moments of desperation and my birthday. Stuff you can’t eat,” she elaborated when Ke, She, and the approaching hunting party looked confused.

                “Pah, green tings,” Lo chimed in with a look of disgust. “Hurt belly moar than no meat for days.”

                “Well, then let’s go get some meat, eh!?” Usagi cheered before beaming up at She and scrambling onto her back the moment the matriarch smiled with her whiskers and bent low to the ground in an offer for the princess to ride.

                The moment She rose onto her feet, bearing the blonde goddess on her back, She let loose a roar that momentarily made her cargo squeal and jump in surprise, much to the amusement of all, including her mate.

                “Don’t laugh at me, Trunks! I nearly peed!” Usa huffed, shaking a fist at the half-Saiyan floating in the air above her, well out of reach of being strangled and grinning down at her toothily.

                “I’d use that hand to hang onto She if I were you!” He warned with a laugh. “Something tells me that that roar meant—“

                “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

                “Hahahahaha! Told you so!”

                Another roar erupted from She, mingling with similar roars from the hunters closest to her, and it didn’t take Usagi long to realize that they were roars of laughter… all of them directed at her. “It’s NOT FUNNY!” She shouted down at the head right in front of her, giving it a light smack that she knew She would barely even feel at all before turning in her seat to stick her tongue out at Ke, Lo, and the two dozen running full-speed behind them. “I’m fat and off-balance, damn it!”

                “Jesh! Osa Ge fat! Moof slow! Eezzee meat! Maybe we eat Osa Ge if hunting bad!” Ke cackled as she caught up with the chucking She and ran with her side-by-side, brimming with glee at the thrill of the first hunt of the season and the promise of fresh meat that wasn’t comprised of their dearest, bravest kin. “Osa Ge so fat, it be goot, lucky New Year!”

                “Jesh, fat prey make goot New Year indeed!” She laughed, the noise sounding so much like a childish giggle to Usagi’s ears that she was dumbfounded for a moment. Apparently her _wer’kha_ sisters were in an _extremely_ good mood!

                To be fair, she would be to at the idea of food after nearly starving all winter.

                “Eat _me_!?” Usagi retorted after several moments. “You think I’m fat!? The lot of you might be skinny to each other, but one of you would feed me for months! Maybe I’ll eat one of you if the hunting’s bad!” She giggled, the sound forced at first, then genuine when everyone within earshot replied in a mixture of taunts to bring it on and hysterical, happy giggles that always came with the first hunt after months of starvation.

                Even though they took some jabs at Usagi’s rounding belly, the Lunarian only laughed, unable to make another joke about their skinniness without feeling a pang of guilt. She knew why they were skinny. She knew why they hadn’t died, too, why they weren’t even thinner, why they were all just strong enough to participate in the hunt while so many others had remained behind to wait, so weakened by the lack of food that they couldn’t even make the journey.

                Even if her _wer’kha_ sisters could laugh about it, Usagi just wasn’t the type to find any humor in the deaths and sacrifices of so many faces that weren’t among the clan on the day of the first thaw. _Trunks,_ she whispered, fumbling for a moment with the bond due to their lack of using it before latching onto his mind, _we have to feed them. We have to find them food! We can’t allow them to starve like this! Never again!_

 _Don’t worry, we won’t,_ he promised her gently through the bond as he flew overhead and kept his eyes peeled for prey, ready to point it out to Ke or She, both of them neck and neck at the lead of the pack. _Even if I have to fly to the other side of the planet to find them food and bring it back, they’ll never go through that again._

 _Good._ For the next hour, that was all Usagi said to anyone as she formulated a plan for the next winter, batting away the hope she’d clung to for months of being rescued. No, hoping for rescue wouldn’t make it happen. It would happen when it happened, and until then, she and Trunks needed to keep their eye on the ball and plan for an indefinite future on Five. That future included providing for their new-found family, not just for the soon-to-be-three of them.

                “Osa Ge.”

                That was all She had to say for the princess to snap her attention back to the hunt, and the way the pack had veered off into two silently loping parties spurred her into nocking an arrow and keeping it at the ready as she nodded to Ke, then followed a nudge through the bond to look up at Trunks. A point towards the southwest, then two motions of his hands widened her eyes. “She, there’s a huge herd that way. _Jam’eht_ … seventeen of them.”

                Flying low, Trunks filled in the blanks for the matriarch. “Three bulls, the rest of them cows. No calves, not yet, anyway. Two of the bulls are fighting over a cow and the third is distracted with trying to mate one of them. There aren’t any guarding the rest.”

                “Goot.” That was all She said as she poured on the speed, veering off to the southwest and away from the scent to the southeast that she’d sent the rest of the hunting party to investigate. Food was a priority. War could wait, and she trusted the sisters she’d sent off with a series of growls to only scout and return with information, just as they’d been ordered.

                “Should I fly to the others and tell them?” Trunks inquired as he itched to get higher and out of the trees where he had a better view of everything.

                After a few moments of hesitation, She nodded once, slowly. “Jesh. And Trunks—no fight.”

                “Fight!?” Usa and Trunks asked at once.

                “Jesh. No fight. Bad She that way. Sent sistahs to look, no fight. Need food first… many suns before fight,” she finished with a nod towards the southwest. “Feed clan first.”

                “No, Trunks,” Ke chimed in when the Saiyan ground out something in his native language. “No,” she repeated with a stern look. “I keep Osa Ge safe. Protect Osa Ge and cub if we fight. Joo lend strength to clan. Jesh?”

                With a quick look around to the skinny females following silently and a mental note at how many already seemed weary after the short run, Trunks nodded at Ke solemnly. “Yes. If there’s a fight, I’ll throw down with the rest of you.”

                “Goot. I protect Osa Ge with my life,” Ke swore.

                “I can protect myself,” Usagi chimed in quietly, tamping down her annoyance in favor of her respect to Ke. “But thanks, all the same. If there’s a fight, I’ll do what I can to help without endangering the baby. I’m not helpless.”

                “No, not helpless,” Ke agreed gently, “but Osa Ge iz target. Osa Ge…” She growled out something in _wer’kha_ then, chuffing to She in thanks when the matriarch continued in words that the Lunarian could understand.

                “Osa Ge is reason two matriarchs leave,” She explained. “One is that way, with her clan. I smell them while ago. When _sh’fr_ and _ta’fr_ fed, we fight. We go to war.”

                “She, I know I don’t understand a lot of your traditions, but there’s got to be a way to avoid war!” Usagi protested.

                “We no fight, they kill joo first chance,” Ke clarified gravely. “Threat at Trunks and Osa Ge is threat at clan. We protect sistah and mate. Fight for sistah and mate. Sistah and mate fight for clan.”

                “We in fight together,” She tried her best to explain.

                “A threat at one is a threat to all,” Trunks offered. “Yeah, I get it… doesn’t mean I have to agree with it.”

                “Or like it,” Usagi stated with quiet anger.

                “Argue later,” a hunter from behind huffed as she sped past the lot of them and broke through into a clearing full of stomping, earth-shaking _jam’eht_ and the three stupid, distracted bulls.

                “I’ll get the males!” Trunks offered as he rose swiftly into the air. “No messy kills, I know!” He added before anyone could remind him not to damage the meat.

                “Osa Ge, big female on left!” She growled out as she shifted in that direction and felt her cargo hand on tight with her knees as an arrow was aimed at the target She had pointed out.

                “Steady!” Usagi called just as the cow took notice of them and reared, trumpeting a warning to the rest of the herd through her short, stubby nose. Leading the target for another moment, Usa only let her arrow fly once she was sure it would hit its mark, and she let loose a triumphant cheer when the cow fell, followed by one bull, then a second… and then a third, all three taken down by Trunks with well-aimed, tiny ki beams. “YEAH! GO TRUNKS! GOOD SHOOTING!”

                “You can praise me when we’re back at the house,” he purred in her ear after flying low, speeding along beside She to peck Usagi on the lips before lifting into the air again with a grin on his face.

                “Heh… Osa Ge red,” Ke teased.

                “Oooo… must want mate _bad_ ,” Lo snickered as she broke through the trees with the remainder of the pack, returning before Trunks could fly off to find them.

                “Hush,” She admonished them with a laugh when Usagi’s next arrow missed a cow’s eye. “Joo make Osa Ge shoot bad! Make fun after hunt!”

                “Phhhhht! Not much to make fun!” Lo roared with laughter as Trunks flew above them and she got a good view up his loincloth. “No idea why Osa Ge want such tiny male!”

                Sputtering loudly at that and bright red, Usagi finally joined in on the conversation. “To you it might be little, but to someone my size, that thing’s friggin’ HUGE! It hurt like a son of a bitch the first time, thank you VERY much, Lo!”

                “Are they making fun of my junk?” Trunks yelled down as he felt his mate’s mortification and righteous, defensive anger… only to turn bright red to match Usagi when he looked down to find the entire hunting party fixated on his loincloth. “HEY! THIS AIN’T NO SHOW AND TELL! ATTENTION ON THE _JAM’EHT_ , NOT MY COCK, GODS DAMN IT!”

                “No show and tell?” She wondered aloud. “Trunks show… do Trunks tell, if show and tell?”

                “Heh… no. Osa Ge tell,” Lo snickered. “Tell us how joor Saiyan mates with tiny male-part.”

                “OH MY GODS DID YOU MISS THE PART WHEN I SAID **_IT’S HUGE_**!?” Usagi shrieked over their combined laughter.

                “Regret teaching Lo joor words,” She sputtered as she cringed as Osa Ge’s indignant volume. “Lo, stahp, Osa Ge too loud. Osa Ge, shoot! Need one moar to carry home for clan.”

                “One…?” Usagi questioned after aiming and loosing an arrow that found its mark in another huge cow, looking back at them inquisitively, the teasing momentarily forgotten. “Why only one more?”

                “Can’t carry all,” Ke chuckled. “Come back later for moar.”

                “But **_I_** can carry them all!” Usagi insisted as she pointed back towards the running herd. “She, we can take them _all_! Come on, _let’s get them_!”

                Hesitating only a moment, She roared out an order to the other hunters to back them up before veering sharply to the right to chase down the rest of the herd, listening for Usagi’s order to slow down and doing so in order to let her aim and shoot. Then she would charge ahead to the next, and the next, and the next, ignoring one _jam’eht_ that had fallen to her sisters’ tail barbs, leaping on top of and running the length of another that had fallen to Ke and Lo. “Joo goot, Osa Ge!?” She called when she felt a hand grip her fur.

                The hand released the matriarch the moment she’d regained her balance, and Usagi replied as she fired at another cow, missed, then fired again and hit her mark, clinging to She’s fur when the wer’kha threw herself further to the right to avoid being smashed into the dirt. “Good! I’m good! You!?”

                “Good! Trunks looking at me funny,” She chuckled. “Think Trunks mad about last _jam’eht_ falling close. I make Trunks happy. TRUNKS! JOO SHOOT DOWN REST!?”

                Startled by the request, the half-Saiyan froze in mid-air and nodded vigorously. “YEAH, I GOT EM!” He shouted back before turning into a golden blur of light as he darted from cow to cow, killing them all with tiny shots of ki through their brains, returning to land in front of She where she’d joined Ke and Lo in feasting, much to the disgust of their littlest sister, his mate. “Looking a little green, sweetheart. You ok?”

                “They eat like pigs,” Usagi sputtered, swallowing another urge to vomit when Ke broke into the intestinal cavity and began to wolf down offal with gusto. “Ew! Ew ew ew! Gross, you guys!”

                “Osa Ge no like?” Lo teased, only to giggle when she saw her sister’s face. “First joo red, now green. _Ta’fr_ , take _sh’fr_ somewhere. Cub make her sick. It happen with mine…” Her face fell momentarily then, before she smiled weakly. “Before lose. Before Osa Ge giff me new cubs, new life. Get her meat,” she offered, nodding towards another downed cow that hadn’t been killed with their poisonous barbs. “Meat in belly make cub-sickness better.”

                “Bread works better. Stuff you guys can’t eat,” Trunks informed her with a smile as he scooped Usagi into his arms and flew off with her a short distance away from the gorging _wer’kha_ and the blood and guts. “Here. Glad I brought this with me,” he offered as he pulled from the small, leather bag at his side a hunk of slightly burned, homemade acorn flatbread she’d baked them for breakfast.

                “You’re a lifesaver,” Usagi sighed as she took the offered bread and nibbled on it, closing her eyes and her ears to block out the sight and sound of her sisters feasting on fresh meat as she leaned into Trunks and relaxed at his warmth and his purr surrounding her. “Love you,” she murmured as she chewed his offering slowly.

                “Love you, too, sweetheart.”

                “HA! I HEAR JOO SAY IT, TRUNKS!”

                “Phhhhhhhht! SHUT UP, KE!” He retorted with a barely contained laugh that spilled forth when the old hunter roared out her laughter and a few others joined in.

                “AAAAW! _TA’FR_ IS IN LOVE!” Lo chimed in. “SO TOUGH! SO STRONG!”

                “SHUDDUP AND EAT, LO!” She roared back at her in Solarian for Osa Ge’s benefit, just to hear her musical little giggle.

                Only that giggle was cut off abruptly and followed by a shriek of mixed fear and anger, and the sound of Trunks roaring out a Saiyan battlecry as She turned just in time to find him standing firm in front of his mate, his hair blonde, his green eyes staring down Hu, one of the matriarchs that She had planned to wipe out as soon as the clan was fed.

                Behind Hu were a dozen males… and five large females, all of them Hu’s daughters. All of them round and well-fed despite the ferocity of the harsh winter. All of them strong and vibrant... unlike She's hunters, who were eating their fill for the first time in weeks.

                _Wer’kha_ words didn’t do it justice, but Saiyan definitely did. “ _Tapa_.”

               

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You think this cliffhanger's bad? Just wait until you see what I do next. I'll be right here if anyone's got any ideas about torches and pitchforks.


End file.
